The Ten Trials of Connie Rosolli
by Rosaleen68
Summary: Connie has to make a deal with Ranger to get out of trouble for what she did in Green Eggs and Busted. Connie story but Babe as well. Rated M for violence and language.
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Prologue

_Stephanie leaned back comfortably into the large body that had come to stand immediately behind her. Ranger dropped a companionable hand onto her shoulder and stared straight at Connie over her head as she continued, "Are you ready to face Christmas Future?"_

_Connie remembered Abruzzi and Anton Ward, and tried hard to suppress a whimper as she looked back at him._

_o0o0o0o0o  
_

The silence stretched out as Ranger stared at Connie, and she thought that her chest might explode with the tension.

Finally he spoke. "I'll put it in terms that your family would understand, Connie. You have insulted me. You have damaged a reputation that I built and that I rely on to keep my people safe. And you have embarrassed Stephanie. What happens between me and Steph is between us, no-one else. I don't care how bored you are working for the pervert; you crossed a line. I know you're connected, but if it suits me to exact retribution, don't think for a second that that will stop me."

Connie caught her breath.

"But the prospect of a war doesn't suit me. I've worked hard to take my business legitimate, and I have no intention of throwing that away over a rhyme and a few cartoons."

She breathed again, feeling her legs tremble as she released the tension in muscles that she didn't know she had tensed. Too soon, as it turned out.

"But you will pay. _You_, Connie, not your boss and not your family. It's time for us to make a deal."

Stephanie's eyes flashed, and Connie watched his hand tighten on her shoulder, holding her in her chair.

"There were ten cartoons in your little masterpiece. You will perform one task for RangeMan for each of those cartoons. Some of those tasks would normally have been Stephanie's, so you undertaking them will go some way to discharging the debt that you owe to her, as well as to me. No-one in my organization questions my instructions, so while you are working for RangeMan you will not question the reasons for those tasks, you will just perform them quickly, efficiently and to the best of your abilities. Do we have a deal?"

"But I don't even…"

"_Do we have a deal,_ Connie?"

She sagged in her chair.

"We have a deal."

o0o0o0o

Stephanie leaned back in the passenger seat of the Turbo and slid a sideways glance at Ranger.

"Another deal for you to collect on? You son of a bitch."

"Has to be this way."

"She didn't mean any harm."

His voice was hard, implacable. "She wanted excitement? Maybe it's time she experienced some. Because she needs to be seen to pay a price for crossing me. You should know how this works. Remember your little gang-banger? Why do you think he talked once you brought me in?"

"But she's my friend."

"She should have thought about that when she was watching you on camera in the alley."

"But this is _Connie_ we're talking about!"

"Doesn't matter."

Stephanie turned in her seat to fully face him as he drove. "I want this to stop."

"Too late, Babe."

"I won't let you hurt her."

He pulled the Turbo to the side of the road, and turned to face her. "So what are you prepared to do to stop me?"

When she replied there was a slight tremor in her voice. "What do I have to do?"

Ranger reached out and gently stroked the side of her face with his index finger. "I don't plan to hurt her, but you know that our work isn't risk free. I _do_ intend to make her regret ever setting pen to paper about us, and nothing will stop me doing that." He gave her a predatory grin, "But I'm open to a side deal if you want to help your friend."

He turned back to the wheel and pulled the car out into the traffic again. "Start thinking about it, and we'll talk terms when we get to my apartment."

o0o0o0o

When they got to the seventh floor apartment Stephanie opted for a stool at the breakfast bar where she could face Ranger, hoping that being able to see his face would help her negotiate. If he was serious about this, she needed to be too.

He followed her in and took the other stool, facing her calmly, not giving anything away.

"Are we serious about this?" she asked.

"Deadly."

"I'm sure there's a rule that you can only make one deal with the Devil in your lifetime. If not, there should be."

"Was the last one so bad?"

She winced. "That's debatable."

"And one day we'll have that debate, but right now I'll tell you what I'm offering and what I want from you."

She braced herself. "Go on."

"You can't stop Connie's payback, you can't do it for her and you can't do it with her. She fucked up, she gets to deal with the consequences. I _will_ tell you in advance what it will be and give you a chance to brief her and support her so that she can do it better."

"And what do you want?"

"Come back to RangeMan, to me."

"But Vinnie…"

"Will not be hung out to dry. Like I said, _she_ pays, not her boss and not her family. You still catch your skips, but you report to me, not to Vinnie. RangeMan will take the low level skips as well for as long as you stay. You will be armed, and if I assign you back-up you will accept with good grace. I won't ask you not to hurt them, we both know how that one works."

She thought about it. "That's all you want from me?"

"That's all. What were you expecting?"

"Not that."

"You really don't get it, do you? When Connie turned Shakespeare she messed with my reputation. That reputation, and the perception in certain quarters that you are my woman, keeps you safe. That means she has put you at risk, so she pays. If your misguided desire to protect her gives me a chance to keep you safer, I'll take it. If it keeps you closer to me, hell yes, I'll take it. But she still pays."

"Not good enough. I want more."

He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

"I want more assurance that she won't be put in unnecessary danger."

"No unnecessary danger, but if the job is high risk, she still does it. For _you_, if it will stop _you _worrying, I will put a man on her for protection when she's on a high risk job, but she won't know about it. I want her scared."

"Then we have a deal."


	2. Trial no 1

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.1

Connie started nervously as the front door to the bonds office opened. She relaxed when Stephanie walked in, dropping a bag of donuts onto her desk before settling on the faded brown couch with one of the donuts.

Lula looked sharply at Connie from where she was standing at the filing cabinets. "What the hell's the matter with you, girl? You been jumping like a rabbit every time the door opens for the last two weeks."

Connie glanced across at Stephanie, who looked calmly back at her as she bit into her donut.

Lula turned to look at Stephanie, then back at Connie, and narrowed her eyes. "OK, what gives? There's something going on and you ain't keeping me out of it." She swung round to glare at Stephanie. "And I'm guessing it's got something to do with that black shirt you wearing."

Connie met Stephanie's eyes, looking to her for guidance.

Stephanie shrugged. "He didn't say it had to be a secret. I say tell her."

Connie closed her eyes briefly, and wished desperately that she'd never seen that damned book sitting in the storeroom with all the other crap handed over by families as part of their bond security.

"When Vinnie asked Ranger to have his men fit a security camera to cover the parking lot at the back, I might have… sort of… maybe… well… asked my cousin to fit an extra one."

"You have a cousin working for Ranger? I never knew that. Who? Have I met him?"

"Slick, and no idea."

"Well that don't sound so bad. Extra security ain't no bad thing. I mean, what if them animal welfare nuts decided to rescue Vinnie's duck one night?"

"Thanks for that picture. Anyway, Ranger found out and was more than pissed about where he put the extra one."

"Which was?"

"In the alley."

An unholy grin spread across Lula's face. "You wanna say that a bit louder, Connie?"

"In the alley, OK?"

Lula looked across at Stephanie, who was watching Connie's face with every indication of polite interest in what she was saying.

"So you had a sneaky camera put in the alley, just for extra security, of course. And what did you watch on your secret extra camera, Connie?"

"Oh, don't you even pretend that you haven't wondered what happens in the alley when he drags her out of the office. Well, I took the opportunity when it arose."

"I'll bet that wasn't all that arose, neither," Lula muttered under her breath.

Stephanie caught what she said and snorted.

"Tell her the rest, Connie, you may as well."

"Well, you know that little Green Eggs and Ham rhyme that's been doing the rounds?"

"Hell yeah. Tank told me that Ranger was royally pissed about that."

"That was me."

Lula whistled, "Damn, girl, are you nuts? You spied on Ranger, and then you wrote a poem about it and drew little pictures so that everyone knew it was about him and a cop's girlfriend? No wonder you nervous! I coulda told you not to even _think_ about doing something like that 'round Ranger. You know the rep he's got on Stark? Don't no-one fuck with Ranger if they can help it. But then I can see you scared, so maybe you know that. Have you seen him yet? And what about your family, they'll protect you, right?"

Connie shook her head. "Oh, yeah, he saw me all right. And the family would step in if they thought he might hurt me, but he's already said he won't because it isn't worth a war. They'd prefer not to tangle with him unless they have to for the same reason, and I made a deal with him to keep the family out of it. I have to do ten jobs for RangeMan. He didn't say what they were, and frankly I was too scared to ask."

Lula nodded, and turned to look at Stephanie again. "So what's with the uniform? Now I got this much, you ain't telling me you just upped and decided to go back to work for Ranger just 'cause you felt like it. Everyone knows Joe was so mad that you ain't seen him since, and you going back to work for Ranger after that would take you out of that frying pan and straight into the flames."

"Connie wasn't the only one that made a deal."

"_What?_" Connie and Lula both stared at her.

"What the hell did _you_ have to give him?" Lula asked.

"Me." Stephanie saw Lula's incredulous expression and laughed. "Relax, Lula, it's not that bad. I'm not some kind of sacrificial virgin or anything." She stared into space and her eyes glazed briefly, then she shook her head and carried on. "I agreed to go back to RangeMan for a while in exchange for early warning of Connie's trials and a chance to help her. A steady paycheck for doing the same job doesn't hurt either, so it's not like it's a big problem for me work-wise. You're right about the frying pan though. When Joe found out, that was the final nail in the coffin for him and me."

Lula shook her head in disbelief. "You and Ranger got some really fucked up shit between you, you know that? So now what happens?"

"Now we wait to find out what she has to do."

o0o0o0o0o

When Stephanie got back to RangeMan that afternoon she found a post-it note stuck to her screen.

_Call me when you get in._

_ R_

She rang his cell phone.

"Yo."

"Yo yourself. You need to talk to me?"

"It's time. Come to my office in a couple of minutes and I'll brief you on Connie's first job."

She spent a couple of minutes checking her messages then headed over to his office on the fifth floor. She knocked twice then put her head round the door. Ranger was speaking on his cell phone, but waved her in and pointed to the couch under the window as he continued his conversation. She settled herself on the couch and watched him while she waited for the phone conversation to end.

He was in corporate mode this afternoon, wearing a black shirt under a black tailored suit. His tie was hanging over the back of his chair and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. The gun in its leather holster should have looked wrong with the business clothes, but instead it somehow seemed a part of him.

Finally he finished his call and came to sit beside her on the couch, casually slinging an arm behind her and pulling her against him. She raised her eyebrows but relaxed into his side all the same.

"You went to the bonds office to pick up the files today. What can you tell me about Connie's state of mind at the moment? How's she handling it?" he asked.

"She's rattled, jumpy. Lula called her on it today, so we told her the whole story. It's not like you wanted it to be a secret, right?"

"No, that's good. The more people that see her scared, the better the whole thing works."

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

"Sticks and stones. Just remember that the more I can make my point using fear, the less I have to make it by hurting people."

"So tell me about the task."

"We've had a tip-off about a guy we're hunting on behalf of his employer, Max Wilson. He embezzled around twenty million from them before heading for the hills. We think that he's currently holed up in a hotel in Philly. Rumor has it that he's had some surgery to change his features, so we need to confirm that it's him before we move in."

"So where does Connie come in?"

"According to an old girlfriend, he has a distinctive tattoo of a pair of entwined lizards on his left hip. He may have had it removed, but if we can confirm its presence or some scar tissue in the same place, it'll be enough for us to move in and hold him while we alert the local police to pick him up. Connie's job will be to get him out of his pants and get a visual on the site of that tattoo."

Stephanie recoiled in shock. "You're not seriously expecting her to have sex with someone just to confirm his identity?"

"I don't care how she does it, as long as the job gets done. Sex would be one way."

"Is he dangerous?"

"No prior history of violence, but anyone with the cops after him and 20 million dollars of someone else's money in his pocket should be considered a potential threat. I promised that she would have protection, and she will, although she won't know it."

"Is this one of the jobs you would have asked me to do?" she asked curiously.

"No, I would have used Jeanne Ellen for this one."

She pulled away and turned to glare at him, her eyes snapping. "Why? Don't you think I could do it?"

"No, it's just that if you got close enough to him to I.D. that tatt, I would have had to shoot him."

She settled back into his side, shaking her head. "One day we really have to have a long talk about us."

"Babe."

o0o0o0o0o

"I have to do _what_?" Connie squeaked, looking up from the file.

Stephanie cringed. "You just have to get a look at it. How you do it is completely up to you."

"And how does he propose that I get a look at the lizards without getting friendly with the snake next door?"

Stephanie was careful not to meet her eyes. "He, ah, said that he was sure that someone as resourceful about getting to see things as you would find a way."

"Oh great. _Fantastic_. One mistake and I'm labeled a peeping tom forever, aren't I?"

"He may have mentioned the punishment fitting the crime."

"Son of a _bitch_!"

Lula's shoulders were shaking so hard with laughter that the contents of the filing cabinet she was leaning against were rattling. "Better be careful, Connie, he could have a python in there keeping the lizards company."

Connie glared at her. Typical of Lula that she couldn't see the problem. "But I don't do this sort of thing!" she wailed. "I wouldn't know where to start."

Lula beamed at her. "But that's OK, girlfriend, because you have us. What you need is some lessons in flirting. And we're the women for the job."

o0o0o0o0o

"Now the trick," said Lula as the three of them walked around Macy's, "is to let your clothes do the talking. Wear something short enough and tight enough and you're halfway there." She sorted through the racks and pulled out a piece of orange spandex pretending to be a dress. "Something like this."

Connie's eyes widened in horror as she eyed the barely-there scrap of fabric. She turned pleadingly to Stephanie, hoping to hear something different, but Stephanie just nodded.

"She's right, but maybe not in orange. We'll find you something you're more comfortable in than this, but if you wear the wrong thing you'll have to work twice as hard to catch his eye."

"What if I don't want to catch his eye?" Connie mumbled under her breath.

Stephanie caught it. "Don't go there. If you don't give it your best shot, Ranger will know. He always knows. Just trust us and Lula and I will get you through this."

"Hell, yeah. When it comes to men, remember you're talking to two professionals here."

Stephanie winced.

"There are all kind of professionals. Your distraction jobs count. Just 'cause you never finish the job don't mean they don't count."

"Lula, I'm a bounty hunter, not a sex worker."

"Reckon your mom wouldn't see much of a difference."

Looking at the expression on Stephanie's face, Connie brightened. At least she wasn't the only one suffering on this trip.

o0o0o0o0o

Three hours and several fitting room arguments later, they were finally able to agree on an outfit. The dress was tight, red, came to Connie's mid thigh and plunged so low between her breasts there was no way she was going to be able to wear a bra with it.

Lula handed a roll of double sided tape to the sales assistant while talking to Connie. "Now this stuff is for the early part of the evening. If you think you might get lucky, go to the bathroom and take it off. Ain't nothing more embarrassing than taking off your dress and it's still stuck to your boobs."

"I don't want to get lucky!" Connie shrieked, then froze in horror as every shopper in the vicinity stopped and turned to look at them. She carried on in a hiss, "This is not a date, remember? I have a job to do."

"But he could be hot." Lula was unrepentant. "Never say never."

"What did I do to deserve this?" Connie moaned.

Stephanie caught her eye and lifted her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah," Connie sighed. "Now I remember."

o0o0o0o0o

At Stephanie's apartment that evening they continued with Project Connie. Connie had almost lost the will to live and was wondering if she could re-negotiate the deal with Ranger to a quick and painless end instead.

Stephanie had tried hard to explain the techniques that she used to bring skips out of bars, but Connie just couldn't get it together.

In desperation, Lula had volunteered to be the honorary man and Stephanie was trying to demonstrate the fake stumble cross-combined with the fluttering eyelash hook. It might as well have been a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon because there was no way that Connie could do it. There was a world of difference between a graceful stumble that ended in a gentle touch on his arm and hitting the floor like a wet sack.

"I'll get it," Connie said as Stephanie applied ice to her ankle. "I have to get it eventually, right?"

Lula and Stephanie exchanged pained looks above her head.

o0o0o0o0o

Another hour later, Stephanie was applying arnica cream to a large bruise on Connie's hip following another painful failure.

"It's lucky that you had all this stuff here, otherwise I would have been in real trouble," said Connie.

Stephanie looked at her in surprise. "This is pretty standard stuff. I usually have to ice something or treat bruising at least once a week."

"That often?"

"Yeah, plus a trip to the hospital now and then if I'm really unlucky."

"What about Ranger's guys? Do they get hurt too?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Not so much. Tank told me once that they didn't usually run. My problem is, skips aren't scared of me, so I get to do it the hard way." She shot Connie a wry smile. "Still think my job is exciting?"

Lula came out of the kitchen with three mugs of coffee. "I been thinking, we're going about this all wrong. Steph's way ain't my way, and my way ain't your way, everybody got their own way. That's why you just can't do Steph's way. We need to find out your way."

"But I don't have a way. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't do this," Connie protested.

"What, does somebody put you in a box and take your key out when you get home every evening?"

"Sometimes it feels like it."

"Don't give me that, girlfriend. I remember you in Vegas. You weren't no shrinking violet in Vegas."

"Yes, but I wasn't trying to pick up a guy in Vegas, I was just gambling and having fun!"

Stephanie broke in, "I have an idea. We need to find out Connie's style, right? Connie needs to practice doing this deliberately and work out what her style is. We need a guy to practice with."

She picked up the phone, and Connie went past wishing for an early death and moved on to wishing that she had never been born.

_o0o0o0o0o_

The doorbell rang and Stephanie went to the door. She returned with the largest man that Connie had ever seen, with the exception of Tank. He wore jeans and a green polo shirt, and his blonde hair was cut military short.

"Connie, meet Hal, one of my favorite merry men."

"Merry men?"

"I work for RangeMan, ma'am. Steph likes to call us merry men. It's a pleasure to meet you." He put out an enormous hand and Connie shook it.

"Thanks for coming at short notice, Hal. I really appreciate it," Stephanie said.

"Anything for you, Steph. So what do you need help with? You didn't say what it was that you needed, but I've got my toolkit in the car in case you needed something fixed. I figured it was something like that or you would have called Ranger instead."

"Oh, that's OK, Hal, you won't need tools. Connie's going to be doing some distraction work for RangeMan and needs to work out her style. Lula and I are girls and not really wired that way, so we need a guy for her to practice on and tell her what would work to lure him out of a bar."

Hal looked up at Stephanie with horror dawning across his face. "But, Steph, I can't do… I mean, I'm sure she's… Ms. Plum, I can't do this, please don't make me."

Stephanie gripped his shoulders with both hands and looked up at him. "Hal, you are here and I need you to do this. This could be a matter of life and death."

It was the first time that Connie had ever heard a grown man whimper.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie tried, but she was blazing with humiliation and her sexy walk felt more like a waddle. Hal froze with terror every time she got anywhere near him and just stuttered every time Stephanie or Lula asked him a question.

Eventually she sighed and conceded defeat. "This is a nightmare for all of us. I think we should quit for tonight. There has to be another way. Maybe I can offer to clean the RangeMan floors for the next ten years instead."

She reached out and patted Hal on the shoulder. "Hal, I appreciate this more than you will ever know. Thank you for trying. And now I plan to go home and get drunk and try to forget that tonight ever happened. In fact, I owe you a drink for tonight's pain. C'mon."

Hal swallowed and followed her out like an enormous, muscle bound lamb.

Lula turned to Stephanie, "Look at him. She's got it, just as long as she has no idea that she's doing it."

"But there's no way that she can do the job without knowing that she's doing it."

"No, but we could do the next best thing."

"What's that?"

"Get her drunk first."

Stephanie thought for a few moments. "Practice run tomorrow night?"

"Hell yeah, I'm in."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie arrived at the bar they had chosen at 9 pm and the place was already packed.

Lula stood and beckoned her over to their table and pointed to a margarita already poured and waiting for her. "Hey, girlfriend! You ready to relax and cheer up some?"

"Thanks, Lula, Steph. Only way is up, right?" and Connie grabbed her margarita and took a long swig.

Three margaritas later Connie was feeling no pain. The drinks kept on coming, they had danced for a while and Lula and Stephanie had told outrageous stories about skips and Lula's old tricks until she was helpless with laughter.

Stephanie leaned forward, "Hey, Connie, remember our trip to Vegas chasing after Singh?"

"Oh, God yeah, it was the most fun I ever had in this job."

Lula joined in, "Vegas was a riot. We should gamble tonight to celebrate the one and only job all three of us did together."

Connie frowned. "How? We can't really gamble here, there aren't any cards, or tables or anything."

Stephanie grinned. "We could just bet against each other, for the hell of it."

Connie drank some more of her margarita. "OK, I'm in."

Lula and Stephanie both smiled.

"I call first," said Stephanie. "Lula, I bet five bucks that you can't get that big guy in the blue shirt out the front of the building. Connie, you reckon she can do it?"

Lula snorted. "Ladies, have your money ready when I get back."

Connie and Stephanie watched as she pushed through the crowd to the man that Stephanie had pointed out. She tapped him on the shoulder, said something close to his ear then gestured towards the door. He quickly headed over to the door, looked both ways and went outside.

Lula walked back over. "I believe you ladies owe me some money."

They handed over the money.

"What did you do?" laughed Connie.

"Told him my man was outside with some quality grass but that he was heading out soon and he'd have to be quick if he wanted in."

"Impressive," commented Stephanie.

"OK, my turn to call it now," said Lula, scanning the crowd. "Twenty bucks says that you can't get Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome over there into the ladies' room."

Stephanie raised her eyebrows, "The ladies' room?"

"You're the expert at doing this shit. You need a bigger challenge."

"You're on, but you have to come rescue me once I get him in there."

"Connie, you in?"

"I'm in. Let's see the master at work."

Stephanie made her way over to her mark. She smiled her good-girl-plays-bad smile and brushed against him slightly, and Lula and Connie watched him fall into a state of slightly befuddled lust. He was almost panting.

"She's good," commented Lula.

"You realize that probably no woman has ever properly witnessed her at work before?"

"It's practically art."

"There she goes," said Connie. "We'd better get ready to pull her out."

Stephanie's mark was following her towards the bathrooms, looking like he'd just won the lottery.

Lula and Connie got up to follow them.

"You know, I almost hate to do this to him," said Lula. "He looks so happy."

"You want to explain to Steph how we left her to extract herself because he looked happy?" Connie asked.

"Hell, no. Lets break up this pretty picture."

They rushed into the ladies' room.

"Cheryl, honey, what are you doing? You promised the doctor you wouldn't do this any more!" Connie ushered Stephanie out of the bathroom and away.

Lula subtly body-checked Stephanie's victim to stop him following. "I am so sorry, she must have forgotten her meds tonight. I swear, we only took our eyes off her for a second."

"Jesus, lady, what are you doing bringing her out in that state?" He stalked past her and returned to the bar.

They met up round the corner and dissolved into laughter.

Stephanie held her hand out. "Come on, pay up."

"With pleasure. That was a joy to watch. You might as well have tied a rope around his dick." Lula handed over her money, and Connie followed suit.

They headed back to their table and poured another round of margaritas out of the jug.

"So, Connie. Ready for your turn?" Stephanie said in a deceptively casual tone.

Connie was thoroughly caught up in the game. "OK. Who, where and how much."

Stephanie's eyes swept the crowd. "OK, fifty bucks say that you can't find out what color shorts the blonde hottie at the end of the bar is wearing."

"That's too easy. What's to stop me from just asking him?"

"Oh no, we'll need proof before paying up."

"OK, I'll meet you by the bathrooms with him in a few minutes." And with that, Connie sashayed over to the bar to speak to her intended victim. They watched her lean over the bar next to him and introduce herself, pointing them out to him and saying something that made him point to himself and laugh. She nodded, laughing along with him, then seized his hand and towed him out towards the bathrooms.

Stephanie and Lula looked at each other then scrambled to follow them.

They followed Connie and her mark to a quiet spot in the corridor and watched him unbuckle his belt and drop his pants just far enough to show the color of his shorts underneath. They whooped and raced over to a grinning Connie to exchange a round of high fives. The guy pulled his pants up quickly, laughing as he did so.

Connie laughed and held out her hand, "Pay up."

Stephanie and Lula both handed over their money, at which point she handed half of it over to him with a huge smile. "A deal's a deal, and thank you." She patted his cheek. "It was good to meet you."

Lula grinned at Stephanie. "I think we just worked out her style."

"I think you're right."

o0o0o0o0o

"I can't do this!" Connie was white and shaking as she paced the floor in the Philadelphia hotel room. "Of course you can. Remember Hal, remember the bar?" Stephanie gripped her shoulders and squeezed gently.

Connie was beautiful in the red dress. It clung to her ample bosom and showed off an hourglass figure that her office clothes tended to conceal. But her fear was overriding every signal that the dress was intended to send out. There was no way that she was going to be able to lure a suspicious criminal anywhere in her current state.

Stephanie sighed and picked up the telephone to call room service. "Can you send a jug of margaritas to room 221, please."

Connie was back to pacing the room. "Just let Ranger kill me, I don't care any more. I'll write in my will that I asked him to do it, it was assisted suicide. There'll be no retribution, I swear it. I can't _do_ this."

"Connie, do you really want to have to face Ranger and tell him that you're not going to do this?"

"No," she replied in a small voice.

"I was there when you made the deal, remember? You agreed to do the jobs quickly, efficiently and to the best of your ability. Nothing in there about having to succeed, just trying your best. If you fail he calls in Jeanne Ellen."

"OK, no pressure. No pressure, he has a backup plan."

"Of course, I don't trust that bitch as far as I can throw her, and if you are truly my friend you will make sure that he doesn't need to call her."

Connie groaned. "Shit, no backup plan. No backup plan."

"Breathe, Connie, if you faint he'll have to call in Jeanne Ellen."

There was a knock at the door, and Stephanie went over to collect the jug that had been brought up. She poured a margarita and handed it to Connie. "Here you go, liquid courage. It'll help you relax."

"Relax. Yeah, just relax." Connie emptied the glass in one go. She held her empty glass out again. "Top me up."

"You know, there's relaxed and then there's comatose."

"I'm not relaxed enough! Give me some more relaxation, quickly!"

Stephanie shrugged and refilled the glass.

By the time she finished the second glass, Connie was feeling pleasantly fuzzy around the edges and wondering what she had been so worried about. "So, Steph, jealous of Jeanne Ellen much?"

Stephanie glared at her. "I think I liked it better when you were scared."

"Too late now. What don't you trust Jeanne Ellen with?"

"Never mind."

"No, I really want to know. What's between you and Jeanne Ellen?"

Stephanie was silent.

"It's Ranger, isn't it. You don't trust her with Ranger."

Stephanie's glare was now intense enough to burn holes in sheet metal. "Let's go over what you have to do one more time."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie stood at the entrance to the hotel bar and held on to the door frame.

Stephanie gave her a gentle nudge from behind. "Go on, he's at the far end of the bar, in the grey shirt."

"I can't. My legs are frozen."

"Think about the look on Ranger's face if you stop now."

"Walking, I'm walking. See me walking." She tottered into the bar feeling like Bambi as she tried to balance on shaking legs.

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie stood at the entrance to the bar and watched Connie with her fingers crossed. "Come on, baby, do me proud."

A warm hand covered her neck and a kiss was pressed into her hair. "You only have to say the word, Babe."

She leaned back, pressing her back into his warmth and resting her head on his shoulder. "You know what I meant. All set?"

"His room and hers are both wired, and there's another wire in the hem of the dress that she doesn't know about. Tank and Hal are on standby. It's up to her what happens next."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie sat down on the stool next to Max Wilson and ordered a beer. She raised the bottle to her mouth with shaking hands and slid a surreptitious look at him. He looked around thirty five, with floppy brown hair and a body that looked as though he had been fit once, but was starting to go slightly to seed. And he was completely ignoring her. Now what was she supposed to do? She had the bruises to prove that Stephanie's style wasn't right for her, and she doubted that she would be able to pull off the style of a plus sized hooker. Probably the best thing was just to have another drink. If Ranger was going to kill her, she might as well die happy.

She signaled to the bartender and asked for a large vodka, then raised her glass in a toast to her impending doom. "It was a short life, and generally a boring one. Cheers." She gulped the vodka and slammed the glass down with her eyes watering.

When she could see again, she was confronted by a pair of amused eyes. Max's eyes.

"Problems?"

"You have no idea."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"May as well. I'm going to die anyway."

He laughed. "I doubt that somehow. Why do you think you're going to die?"

"I have this job to do. And I just can't do it. Haven't got what it takes." She signaled the bartender for another vodka.

"What do you have to do?"

"I can't tell you." Baaad idea, telling your mark what you're up to.

"C'mon, how bad can it be? Maybe I can help."

She laughed shakily. "Somehow I doubt that." Not unless he was willing to drop his shorts right here and now and show Ranger his tattoo.

"At least let me buy you another one of those while you think about it." He ordered another vodka for her.

She stared into the glass while her mind whirled. Finally she took a deep breath and turned to face him. "OK, you really want to know my problem? I need a model. I need to draw a male nude for my art class, I'm too embarrassed to ask anyone I actually know and I'm going to flunk out if I don't do it. I thought maybe I could find someone I didn't know so that it wouldn't get back to my family, but I can't do it. Haven't got the guts. What was I going to do, just walk into a bar and ask some stranger to take his clothes off so I could draw him? I don't know what the hell I was ever thinking."

Surely he wasn't stupid enough to fall for it. He'd just had surgery on his face for God's sake, surely he'd be suspicious.

"Ask me."

"Seriously?"

"_Ask_ me."

Oh please let it be this easy.

"Will you help me?"

"Of course." And he smiled at her in a way that made her stomach churn queasily. "After all, I'm sure you'll be _very_ grateful. Shall we go up to my room?"

Maybe not that easy.

"I'll need to grab my sketchbook first."

"I'm in room 354. I'll be waiting for you."

Connie got up and walked slowly to the door, trying not to let the panic show.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger faded into the shadows as Connie approached, leaving Stephanie standing alone in the corridor.

Connie hissed, "Powder room, now!" as she walked past her and continued down the corridor without stopping.

Stephanie waited a few moments then followed her.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was pacing frantically as Stephanie walked into the powder room.

"I need a sketchpad and some pencils, quickly."

"What? Why?"

"I'm in, but I…"

"You're in? _Yes!_"

"Easy for you to say. This is the point where your private army steps in. I have to do this alone."

"No, you have me and you will be fine. Now, you head up to your room while I try to find you some paper. And you are _so_ telling me why you need it when I get back."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie headed out to the parking lot and, just as she had expected, Tank had a sketchpad and a box of pencils waiting for her.

"I will never understand how you guys do that."

"Trade secret, Bombshell."

She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down to kiss his cheek. "Thanks, Tank._"_

o0o0o0o0o

Connie went up to room 354 armed with her new art materials.

"Here goes." She took a deep breath and knocked. The door opened to reveal Max standing in the doorway.

Oh God.

"Max! You're… already naked. Great," she said weakly.

He grabbed her wrist and drew her into the room before she could run.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie's heart felt like it was going to pound its way right out of her chest. Max was posed on the bed, legs akimbo and, oh God, dick rising to half mast, but she still couldn't see the spot on his hip that she needed to.

"Max? Could you kind of throw your left knee across to your right so that your body twists?"

"That's so you can see the definition in my ass better, right? Sure, baby." He moved his left knee, and suddenly the tattoo was visible. Two blue-green lizards twisted around each other and biting each other's tails. All she had to do now was figure out how to get out in one piece and report the information.

"Baby? Are you drawing me right now? Because it's okay if you don't want to. There are lots of things we could do instead. I kinda wondered if it was just an excuse anyway."

"I'm drawing," she squeaked hastily and frantically put pencil to paper and started to sketch.

o0o0o0o0o

Five minutes later her nerves couldn't take any more. She closed her sketchbook and started to edge toward the door. "Well, I'm done, I can't thank you enough, you have no idea how grateful I am, and…"

He jumped up from the bed and grabbed her arm. "Hold on, not so fast, I want to see it." He took the book with his other hand and flipped it open. "A cartoon? This is just a cartoon! If you just wanted to get me naked why didn't you just… hey!"

Connie was twisting, trying to get free from him.

He gripped her arm harder. "Oh no you don't! We have unfinished business." He started to pull her back towards the bed, fingers sinking painfully into her arm.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she continued to struggle. She realized that, pound for pound, there was no way that she could match his male strength. Instead she stamped on his instep and pulled away hard as he yelped with pain. She broke free and tore the door open then bolted out into the corridor.

She was too panicked to see Tank and Hal sprint around the corner and force Max back into his room, kicking the door shut behind them. She raced around the corner to the stairs, where a hand grabbed her wrist. She screamed.

"Shh, shh, it's just me." Stephanie's voice filtered through her panic.

Connie tried not to sob as the adrenaline wore off, leaving her shaking and exhausted. "It's him. I saw the tattoo." Her voice trembled.

"I am so proud of you." Stephanie drew her into a hug and let her cry.

Through her tears she saw Ranger walk around the corner and stop where he knew she could see him. He was more frightening than Max, standing there in his painted-on black t-shirt and cargos. He looked at her impassively, then nodded slowly and raised one finger. One trial completed. Nine to go.


	3. Trial no 2

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.2

Stephanie was slumped on the couch in Ranger's office fiddling with the clip on her RangeMan I.D. tag, absently clipping it onto her black RangeMan shirt and then taking it off again. Clip on, clip off. Clip on, clip off. Clip on, clip off. Then she clipped it on to her finger by mistake and hissed under her breath, "Fuck! Ow!" She pulled the clip off quickly and sucked her sore finger into her mouth.

"Babe."

She looked up. Ranger was staring at her.

"Did you want something, or are you just trying to make sure that I can't think of anything else all day except the way that you're sucking that finger?"

She shrugged. Clip on, clip off. Clip on, clip off. Remove finger from mouth with a little pop, inspect the damage then slide it back into mouth. Slowly. Just don't look up. Don't acknowledge the waves of tension emanating from the other side of the room.

Then a large hand grabbed hers and she squeaked as he pulled her to her feet and out of his office.

He took her down to the parking garage and remoted the Turbo open. "Get in."

"Where are we going?"

"Out. Lunch. Anything that I can think of that will stop you from carrying on with your little head-fuck, which by the way, I recommend that you don't try again unless you want to deal with the consequences."

"Oh, was I bothering you?" she asked innocently.

"Cut it out. You know better."

"It's not nice is it?"

"What?"

"Having someone deliberately messing with your head."

He expelled a breath. "Now we're getting down to it. Okay, let's go get some lunch and we'll talk."

o0o0o0o0o

They ended up with coffee and sandwiches on a quiet bench next to a duck pond in a local park. Mercifully, there were just a few small ducks and moorhens waiting for crumbs and not the guerrilla waterfowl that she had met on her last visit to a pond.

She quietly balled up pieces of crust and flicked them towards the waiting birds.

Ranger watched her fidgeting. "You wanted to talk, so talk."

"It's wrong."

"What's wrong?"

"What you're doing to Connie. What I'm helping you do to Connie."

"Trust me, what I'm doing to Connie would be far worse if you weren't involved."

"It still felt wrong. She was crying. I've never seen Connie cry." She started punching little holes in her disposable coffee cup with her fingernail.

"But she wasn't bored."

"Bastard."

"Steph, nothing will stop this. Nothing. I know she was frightened but she was in no danger at any time. She was completely covered, and she came through with flying colors. Think of it as expanding her horizons."

"It still feels wrong."

"You don't have to be involved if you don't want to."

"I won't walk away from her. She's better off with me there than without."

He tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "She's not the only one."

Three days later Ranger dropped a file onto Stephanie's desk. "The next one. You'll be pleased to hear that she's in no danger at all on this one, not even from a horny nude model."

"I presume that there's still a catch in there somewhere."

"There's always a catch, otherwise what would be the point? And you know what a creative man I can be when I put my mind to it."

"The knowledge of how creative you can be is burned into my brain. As well as the speed with which you were out of the door the next morning. But don't worry, it wasn't just you. Departing male asses seem to be a regular feature of my life." She turned away from him to stare at the cover of the file.

He lingered as if he was about to say something, but finally he just stroked the back of her neck gently and went back to his own office.

Stephanie headed over to the bonds office. Connie was there on her own. "Hey, Connie. Lula out?"

"Macy's. Hot date with Tank tonight. I've got the files ready for you." Connie saw that Stephanie was already holding a brown manila file in her hand and stilled. "Next one?"

"Yeah."

"What can you tell me?"

"That it's better than the last one. I think. I hope." She pulled up a chair and they sat down together to read.

o0o0o0o0o

"Surveillance. Well that doesn't seem so bad. Ranger takes you on a lot of surveillance jobs, right?" Connie said.

"Yep. I've lost count of the hours I've spent sitting in a car with him getting a numb ass. Plus, I only get one pee break in the whole eight hours. You'd think he'd need to pee too, but no, he's a machine. I have to deliberately not drink for four hours before we start or I have to get out and look for bushes with nice dense leaves and no security lights nearby."

"Well, I'll take that over Max the potential rapist. What do I have to surveil?"

"Looks like there are going to be four points, with a team covering each one. The skip's house, his girlfriend's, a bar on Stark and… his other favorite place to visit."

Connie leaned over and peered at the roster, then sank her head into her hands. "He wouldn't."

"I think he just did."

"Now why would Ranger schedule me to cover Domino's? Oh no, don't tell me, I know this one. Because I like to watch, right?"

"You don't really want me to answer, do you?"

"Not really."

o0o0o0o0o

After a cup of coffee and an emergency donut they went back to the staffing roster.

"Looks like you're on this job as well," Connie said, "Covering the girlfriend's house with… oh look, what a surprise, Ranger."

Stephanie snorted. "Another night of 'The Zone' coming up. I wonder what he'd do if I brought a Gameboy with me to pass the time?"

"Probably ply you with coffee, wait until you went to find a bush then throw the console up in the air and shoot it on the way down. Who am I with?"

"Hector."

"And? Who's Hector?" Connie prompted.

"Probably better that you don't know. Just don't piss him off."

Connie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, because things could be _so_ much worse with someone _else_ from RangeMan pissed off with me as well."

"Gang tattoos, one teardrop."

"I take your point."

"Just look at it this way; he's gay, so at least your virtue will be safe this time out."

Connie thought about it, and in a bizarre sort of way, Ranger's plan made sense. "Guess Ranger wants a team that doesn't go a whole bunch on boobs, huh?"

"The way I see it, there's being aware of your surroundings, and there's being _too_ aware of your surroundings."

Connie stood in front of her open closet, debating what to wear. What should a girl wear to accompany a gay gang-banger on a non-date to a strip club? She needed to blend in to do the surveillance effectively, but not blend in so well that she was in danger of being considered part of the entertainment. She snorted. Yeah, right, thirty something and a little on the heavy side to boot, probably not particularly likely to get mistaken for a stripper. Might be best just to go low key and remove all doubt.

Finally she picked a smart pair of indigo jeans and a deep v-neck t-shirt embroidered with beading that plunged between her breasts, and added a pair of stiletto heeled shoes. She was due at RangeMan in thirty minutes; Stephanie had said that they would all meet there then the teams would assemble and head out in the RangeMan cars to their various positions.

o0o0o0o0o

The control room buzzed her in when she pulled up to the basement car park entrance and Tank met her at the elevator entrance.

He nodded. "Connie."

"Hey Tank. Feels strange, me coming to you instead of you coming to Vinnie's."

"You'll be fine." Tank was evidently just as talkative on his home turf as he was on hers.

He escorted her up to the control room to join the rest of the men that would be working the same shift.

The fifth floor was a hubbub of activity, with men checking radio links and assembling what they would need to sit in a car for eight hours straight. Stephanie was sitting on a desk swinging her legs and looking wistfully at the coffee pot just visible through the door to the break room.

Connie stifled a laugh. At least she wasn't suffering alone tonight. She waved, and Stephanie's face brightened as she hopped off the desk and squeezed through the RangeMen to get to her. She was so much smaller than most of them that she looked like a child trying to get to the front of a crowd to see the parade.

"Connie!" Stephanie squeezed her in a hug. Being the only two women in a room full of hulking ex-military men inspired a sense of girl solidarity. "All set? Let me introduce you to Hector and then we'll get you fitted with a radio."

She grabbed her hand and headed back the way she had just come, pulling Connie in her wake. Connie couldn't help notice the number of eyes fixed to her cleavage as they ploughed through. She hoped that it wasn't an omen of the evening to come.

o0o0o0o0o

They found Hector sitting at the very back of the room allowing Ella to apply camouflage makeup over the tattoos visible outside his clothing.

Connie gulped, looking at the teardrop that was still visible under his eye for the moment.

Stephanie introduced them. "Connie, this is Ella, our house mommy at RangeMan Trenton, and this is Hector, who's going with you tonight. Guys, this is Connie. She runs the bonds office for Vinnie most of the time."

A pained expression flitted across Ella's face and was gone almost before it arrived. "Would this be the Vinnie with the pet duck?"

Connie nodded, and wondered if there was anyone in Trenton who didn't know the duck story.

Ella continued to paint Hector's skin. "Well, it's lovely to meet you dear. Please forgive me if I don't stop, I have to get this finished before they leave."

Hector just looked at her. She quailed a little, telling herself that he would have at least nodded if he wasn't keeping still for Ella to do his makeup.

o0o0o0o0o

Hector got into the driver's seat of their RangeMan vehicle and Connie got in next to him. He still hadn't said a word to her, and her hands were starting to shake as she tried to buckle her seat belt without brushing against his hands as he did the same. In fact they were shaking so hard that she just couldn't fit the tongue of the belt into the buckle at all. She tried three times as silent tears sprang to her eyes.

She felt a warm hand grip her own and froze in terror. She looked up and saw Hector watching her with sharp eyes. He held one finger up in front of him and took the belt away from her unresisting hands. He carefully fastened it for her then gave her a smile and patted her shoulder. "Okay?"

She nodded dumbly, and sat back in her seat waiting for the shakes to subside.

o0o0o0o0o

The music was pounding as they walked through the lobby doors into Domino's. She looked for a back table where they could sit together to watch for the skip. She spotted one to the right and pointed it out to Hector, but to her horror, he directed her to that table, and then he moved to the left side of the room to take up a position at a table on the other side of the gangway. She had to sit on her own? In a strip club? She noticed that his position gave him an excellent view of the bouncer's ass and raised her eyebrows at him.

He twitched his lips and shrugged. It looked like Ranger's cunning plan to make sure that the surveillance team wouldn't be distracted wasn't going to be as effective as he had planned. Good. Served him right.

Connie ordered a drink from a scantily clad waitress, fixing her gaze firmly on the end of the woman's nose to avoid seeing far more than she ever wanted to. Stephanie had suggested that one or two drinks to relax her again might be an idea, but not to overdo it. She was going to try to stick to the plan, but she made no promises to herself. It depended on how close she had to get to other women's boobs as part of tonight's job.

She scanned the crowd carefully, looking for signs of the skip. There were a few women scattered around, mostly in the company of men, but for the most part the club was filled with men in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

A tall blonde girl captured Connie's attention as she was looking round. She was wearing nothing but a silver thong and a filmy top, and she looked about sixteen. Surely she was too young to be working in a strip club? When she looked back at Connie and headed over, she realized that she had been caught staring.

"Want a dance, honey?"

Connie flushed to the roots of her hair. "No! I was just-"

"Just what?"

"Wondering how old you were."

The girl gave her an odd look, turned and walked away towards a middle aged man who had his eyes fixed on her obviously hoping for a little side action.

Connie took a slug from her drink. It was going to be a long night.

o0o0o0o0o

At eleven o'clock she suddenly heard Ranger's voice in the discreet receiver that was concealed underneath her strategically large earrings.

"All teams report status. Position two, clear."

She pressed the send button that Stephanie had shown her how to use before she really had time to think about what she was doing. "Hello?"

Someone else's voice that she didn't recognize snickered in her ear, "Position one, situation 'Hello' too."

Then she heard Stephanie's voice. "Knock it off, Lester, we don't use radios in Vinnie's office. Weren't you ever new?"

"Never, Bombshell, I was born experienced. At so many things."

Another unknown voice next. "Santos, you are such an asshole sometimes. Position three, clear."

Finally Hector's disembodied voice arrived, answering in thickly accented English. "Position four, clear."

Connie watched curiously as his lips moved slightly ahead of his voice arriving in her ear. It was like watching a foreign film with a dubbed soundtrack.

"So, Bombshell, do you need to pee yet?" Lester asked over the radio.

"Bite me, Santos."

"One day, if you ask me really, really nicely."

Ranger cut in abruptly. "Enough. Resume radio silence."

Connie sighed. Playtime over. Okay, so she'd looked stupid, but it had been a brief distraction from the endless display of breasts around her. Time to get back to business.

o0o0o0o0o

About ten minutes later she managed to accidentally catch the attention of another girl. This time a redhead about the same height as her. Damn.

"Want a dance, sweetie? We do girls too," and she pressed her breasts in closer.

Connie tried to not to recoil in case she blew her cover. "No," she squeaked. This was terrible. She looked across at Hector, who seemed to be quite comfortable with his view of the doorman's ass. Connie watched a girl approach him and veer away as he shook his head slowly. Tattoos or no, he still had an air of menace that she would have currently given anything to possess.

o0o0o0o0o

By the time she had turned down another two potential lap dances, Connie had just about mastered the art of turning them away while keeping her eyes firmly fixed above shoulder level. It figured that the evening would then have a new challenge to throw at her.

She noticed a large man squinting at her from his seat at a table two rows down from her own. His eyes were reddened and bleary and he was clearly several drinks past happy and well on the way to stinking drunk. She tried not to catch his eye, concentrating her attention on the tanned and toned twig currently writhing around the pole on the stage. Bitch.

It didn't work. With a lurch he hauled himself up from his chair and staggered towards her. He was huge and flabby and she could see thick tufts of hair poking above the neck and through the armpits of his wife-beater.

She glared at him, hoping that she had hitherto undiscovered powers of psychic persuasion like the ones Hector appeared to possess. _Go. Go away. Fuck off. Fuck. Off. Now_.

Nothing doing. In fact she had possibly just encouraged him. She was clearly just human and she was on her own. Worse, she was a girl and she was on her own.

He leaned over her and spoke right into her face with beer laden breath, "Hey sweetheart, I've been watching you. Enjoying the show?"

She ignored him, sending a silent plea to Hector to intervene. Not that her psychic powers were doing her much good so far tonight. Knowing her luck, Ranger would have instructed him not to interfere so that her punishment didn't get spoiled.

"C'mon baby, don't be that way. You got a great rack on you. Bet you'd look fine up there dancing with that pole, a proper woman like you, with real curves."

Ugh. Finally someone appreciated her charms and he turned out to be a near cousin to King Kong, with slightly more body hair. Stephanie got to choose between Morelli and Ranger. There was no justice in the world. None.

"Plenty to hold on to, if you know what I mean."

Oh no, he did not just say that, did he? This had to stop. Now. Without being arrested for carrying concealed or for shooting assholes without a permit. She needed something else. And since she was clearly a girl alone, then girl weapons it would have to be. She gently eased one foot into position under the table and smiled at him.

"You know, I have great shoes to go with my great rack. I'm wearing three inch spike heels. They hurt like a bitch after a couple of hours but they make my legs look _fabulous_, so what's a little pain?"

"Huh?" He had no idea what she was talking about. Meat head.

"One of those spike heels is currently resting over your left pinky toe. With a little pressure I could probably chop the fucker straight off. But the best thing is that I have two. Where do you think I'm going to aim the other one if you're still here in ten seconds?1"

He blanched and rose from the table. "Sorry to trouble you ma'am." Not only did he leave her alone, he clearly decided that he had had enough close encounters with women for one evening and headed straight for the exit and left.

So much for men. The bouncer hadn't even noticed. It looked like all he was good for was providing Hector with something to look at. She glared at the unwitting bouncer for a while, then switched her gaze to Hector and sent him a dagger look as well. He just grinned back and winked at her.

o0o0o0o0o

She tried to keep scanning the club unobtrusively without drawing attention to herself, but eventually she realized that it just brought the girls over to her. She needed a new plan. She tried to focus on the stage for a while instead.

That seemed to solve the problem of unwanted visitors for a while, but it did mean that she got to see far more than she was used to seeing, and got to see it gyrate into the bargain. It was hard not to draw comparisons between her generous thirty-two year old figure and these all-over tanned twigs with their platinum blonde hair and pneumatic breasts that seemed to defy gravity. She winced as the current act came to an end. Okay, add waxed to within an inch of their lives as well. That much depilation had to hurt. She wondered idly how they dealt with the stubble issue.

A large man walked up to Hector and she tensed, not sure if he had been made. Hector seemed relaxed enough, so she supposed not. The man leaned in and spoke to him, then they exchanged a complicated handshake and he straightened up.

He turned and began walking towards her, and she realized that she knew him. He sat down at her table and smiled shyly at her.

"Hal?"

"Hi, Miss Rosolli. Good to see you."

"Are you part of our surveillance team too?"

"No, I come in here all the time."

Connie watched him blush crimson and avert his eyes from the over-siliconed pair of breasts on display on the stage, and stifled a laugh. "Of course. Silly of me. You ex-military guys are men of the world, right?" She watched him sit a little straighter in his chair.

"Of course." He saw her biting her lip trying not to laugh and looked embarrassed. "Okay, maybe not. I just thought you might appreciate some company since you were stuck here all evening."

"Do you know, that is possibly the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me. You are so sweet."

"Sweet? That's not something I'm used to hearing every day. In fact you're the only person apart from my mother who's ever called me sweet."

"Ah, but how many women have you let practice their seduction skills on you?"

"You're definitely the first. Not even my mother. In fact _definitely_ not my mother."

She laughed. "Not even Stephanie?"

"No, Stephanie practiced her takedown skills on me instead."

Connie raised her eyebrows. "Tell."

"She stunned me with my own stun gun," he said sheepishly.

She leaned forward. "Now you _have_ to tell me everything."

Hal told her a part of the Slayer story that she hadn't known, and suddenly she was having fun, even if she did have to check periodically to see if their skip had made an appearance, and even if they did both regularly blush at what was going on around them.

o0o0o0o0o

At around half past twelve Connie heard Lester's voice in her receiver, "This is position one. Our dumbass just came home and we have him in custody and on the way to the station. No damage, no casualties."

"Good. We're done everybody, pack up and head back," Ranger answered.

Connie turned to receive a thumbs up from Hector. He had heard too. She smiled; Stephanie would be relieved, she wouldn't be hunting for bushes tonight.

Right on cue, Stephanie spoke. "Connie, we're going to come over to your position and pick you up. You and I can head back together and Ranger will take Hector so that we can talk."

Hector had come over to their table, so Connie relayed the message to him and Hal.

"Ranger's coming here?" Hal jumped up from his seat and looked around. "I need to get going. Early to bed, early to rise, right?"

"I guess. Thanks for keeping me company tonight."

He beamed at her. "It was my pleasure."

o0o0o0o0o

Hector and Connie left through the main door and found Stephanie's and Ranger's car already waiting for them out in the dimly lit parking lot. Hal had left through a different door, mumbling something about parking on a side street.

Ranger rolled his window down and nodded wordlessly to Connie while Stephanie climbed out of the passenger seat. He couldn't see it from inside the car, but Stephanie was grinning and giving her a double thumbs up over the roof of the car. It looked like two down, eight to go.

She nodded back at Ranger, striving to look suitably solemn. Wouldn't do to let him know what Stephanie was up to behind his back. She cast a casual look around the surrounding streets to see if she could spot Hal anywhere around. She half suspected that Stephanie wasn't the only one operating just below Ranger's radar. Those had looked suspiciously like RangeMan pants and boots that he was wearing with his casual shirt.

Stephanie jumped into the driver's seat, still grinning. "So?"

Connie reflected. How to sum up the evening in one sentence. "Oh my God, the boobs!" She started to giggle. "Boobs, everywhere! They must have thought I was a complete perv, but no-one batted an eyelid! I didn't know where to look. They offered me lap dances and everything. What if someone I knew was in there?"

Stephanie was giggling helplessly too. "Well, of course they'd think you were a perv. They already do, what with you working for Vinnie for so long and all."

"_What?_" Connie's laughter stopped abruptly.

_1 Sadly not my idea. I borrowed it from Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. HIGHLY recommended._


	4. Trial no 3

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.3

Ranger was sitting at his desk reviewing figures for a prospective client when a tap at the door took his attention from the page.

"Enter."

Stephanie poked her head round the door. "Good time?"

"Always. What can I do for you?"

She crossed the large office, her feet silent on the thick carpet. She walked round to his side of the desk and leaned over to press a soft kiss to his cheek.

He looked at her quizzically. "Not that you ever need a reason to kiss me, but was that for something in particular?"

"That was because when I drove Connie back here last night she was laughing, not crying."

He reached out a hand and pulled her into his lap.

"She did well," he said quietly.

"Better than well. Don't think I don't know that Hector had instructions to leave her on her own."

"Developing ESP?"

"Standard RangeMan skill, plus Hector may have mentioned a few things when I chatted with him earlier."

He lifted an eyebrow. Hector had told him all about it. "I think the term you're looking for is interrogated."

"Tomato, tomahto. Anyway, ask him how she dealt with her admirer. I think he's a little bit in love with her after seeing that one. Manny got roped in to do some translating and he wants to meet her now, too. I might have competition to go and pick up the files tomorrow."

"You know, I'm not sure if this qualifies as good for morale or distracting my men from their work."

"You should have thought about that before you came up with your diabolical plan, Mr Manoso. And now, Herbie Grant has a date with a jail cell. His neighbor thinks she saw him this morning, so with any luck I'm going to ruin his afternoon."

"Take Tank."

"Hal already volunteered. Said he had a bet with Lester that he wouldn't get hurt. Any objections?"

"Just don't stun him again. It takes two men to pick him up afterwards."

"Promise." She planted a smacking kiss on his other cheek, slid off his lap and left the room.

He watched her until she was out of view then turned back to his column of figures, shifting in his seat and readjusting his pants before picking up his pen again.

o0o0o0o0o

A prickling feeling on the back of her neck woke Connie from her doze in front of the TV. She looked up and jumped when she saw Ranger sitting in the other armchair regarding her silently.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, dry-mouthed.

"Next job," he answered.

"Now? It's past midnight."

"In three days. You report to RangeMan at 09:00 tomorrow for training. Lester will be waiting for you."

"But I can't-"

"Vinnie already has help arranged," he cut in. "I visited him first tonight. Dress in pants and sneakers and be on time."

She took a deep breath and nodded.

o0o0o0o0o

Half an hour later, Ranger carried out his third break-in of the night. He slipped quietly into the sleeper's bedroom and crouched down until his face was level with hers.

"Babe," he said softly.

Stephanie opened her eyes sleepily. "Ranger? S'up?"

"Needed to talk to you."

She mumbled something which ended in 'morning'.

"More fun this way."

"Hmmn?"

"Connie's coming into RangeMan at nine tomorrow. She's going to need some training for the next job. Thought you might like to train with her."

" 'K." Her eyes were starting to close again.

He watched her fall back to sleep, then leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips. "Goodnight."

She watched him leave the room through slitted eyes, then finally fell asleep for real.

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie woke in the morning to the smell of coffee. She threw off her covers and followed the smell to the kitchen, where she found the coffee, a foil packet of something that smelled equally good, and Ranger.

"Don't for a minute think that I'm complaining, since you brought food, but what are you doing here?" she asked as she investigated the packet. "And more importantly, what's in here?"

"I wasn't sure you'd remember our conversation from last night so I'm here to take you to the office after breakfast, and this is breakfast. Pancakes from Ella."

"Only you could call that a conversation, but yeah, I remember you being here. Now be a good control freak and pour the coffee while I remember exactly why I love Ella."

She pulled some plates from the cabinet and took the pancakes over to the table.

"So what am I supposed to be doing with Connie today?" she asked around a mouthful of pancake.

"B and E 101."

She nearly choked. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Now try to chew those pancakes instead of inhaling them and we'll head out. You're working with Lester today."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie and Stephanie met Lester at RangeMan and followed him to a large room down in the basement next to the gun range. They looked around curiously. There were assorted windows and doors in frames propped up against the walls, various locked cabinets, and even a desk standing in the middle of the room. They all had locks fitted to them.

Lester pulled two pouches out of his pocket and threw one each to Connie and Stephanie. "Okay ladies, listen up. These contain various items that you are going to practice using today. They are all legal to buy, and in theory you can have them in your possession, but do not _ever_ get picked up by the cops carrying them."

"What happens if we do?" Stephanie asked.

"You get hauled to the station so fast that your feet don't touch the ground. And in your case, Bombshell, you also get shouted at by your ex-boyfriend, which will make you miserable, and when you get miserable, Ranger gets miserable, and when Ranger gets miserable he then makes everybody else's life hell. So, as a personal favor to me, don't."

They carefully examined the contents of the pouches.

Connie held up a diamond ring. "What's this for?" She looked over and saw Stephanie examining a similar ring.

"I wanted to declare my undying love and devotion to you. Both of you." He laughed at their matching glares. "What? Am I losing my touch?"

"_Lester_." Stephanie said warningly.

"Okay, seriously, they're your tool of last resort. If you need to get in through a window and you can't work the lock, use them to cut the glass. They're the last resort because they leave a calling card, and if you have any skills at all, the idea is to get in and out again without anyone knowing. Also, you can't exactly pass the holes off as accidental damage. On the plus side, they aren't an obvious B and E tool, so you can carry them in the open more easily."

He went on to explain the rest of the items and their uses, before they started to practice on the items in the rooms. Lester watched them for an hour and answered any questions that they had, then left them to it.

o0o0o0o0o

By eleven, Connie's fingers were sore and her eyes were watering. Stephanie seemed to be faring a little better, so she sat back and watched her for a while.

"How come you don't do all this already?" Connie asked.

"I threw my first set of lock picks out because I couldn't get the hang of it, then I always found other ways to do it. Breaking the glass and claiming it was an accident usually seems to work for me." Stephanie didn't look up from the lock she was working on as she answered.

Suddenly Stephanie crowed with triumph as the door that she was working on swung open. "Got it!"

Connie sighed and started working on her cabinet lock again.

o0o0o0o0o

At 12.30 Lester collected them from their basement dungeon and took them up to the break room for lunch. Stephanie seemed to know all of the Rangemen personally and Connie watched her calling greetings to assorted dangerous-looking men in black all the way along their route. They all called back and a few literally picked her up and swung her through the air like a toddler as she squealed and laughed. She was known as Bombshell to nearly all of them and didn't seem to mind at all, although Connie distinctly remembered a few rants about her Bombshell Bounty Hunter tag when she first came to the attention of the press. She seemed to be a part of the place, and the air of testosterone-laden menace that otherwise pervaded the air seemed to dissipate a little when she was around.

o0o0o0o0o

They collected sandwiches from the refrigerator in the break room and sat down at a table.

Connie had just taken a bite of her turkey sandwich when an unfamiliar Rangeman sat down opposite and grinned at her. He had light olive skin and dark hair cut very short, and he was acting like he knew her. She glanced quickly over her shoulder to see if he was smiling at someone else. Stephanie was chatting animatedly to Lester about something and didn't notice the new arrival.

He stuck a hand out. "Zero. You're Connie, right?"

She nodded cautiously.

"If I say surveillance position three does that help?"

Realization dawned. "You were the other voice on the radio. You called Lester an asshole." She looked around guiltily but Lester wasn't listening. She shook the offered hand. "Nice to put a face to the voice."

"It's good to see you here at mission control. You did well at Domino's."

She cringed. "I made a fool of myself."

"Are you kidding? Hector told me what you did to King Kong's little brother. I always admire creative use of weaponry in the field. So what are you doing today?"

"Lock picking 101 in the basement."

"We just set that up. Good luck with it. And now, unfortunately there are ten boring monitors waiting for me to stare at them for another two hours. Have fun this afternoon." He got up and left, grabbing another cup of coffee to take back with him.

o0o0o0o0o

The afternoon consisted of more lock picking. Connie and Stephanie both got more confident, until they had tackled most of the cabinets and about half of the doors. The windows were still difficult, and they had only beaten around half of the locks by 5 when Lester came back to get them.

"Ranger says come back tomorrow at 9 again if you haven't both opened everything in the room."

It looked like they had another day of sore fingers ahead of them.

Day 2

Lester didn't stop them for lunch today, and they were concentrating so hard that they never noticed lunch-time come and go. By 4.30 they had managed to open the last of the cabinets, another two doors apiece and Connie had managed some of the simpler windows too. Stephanie, though, had become increasing clumsy and distracted, and had stopped seriously trying at least an hour before.

"What's the matter?" Connie asked.

"Had enough. How long are we supposed to sit here like good little trainee housebreakers anyway?"

There was an edge to her voice, and Connie looked at her appraisingly. "Your hands are shaking."

"Tired." Stephanie's short response was followed by a long yawn.

"Up late?"

"No! I'm just tired. What's with all the questions?"

"Humor me. What did you have for breakfast this morning?"

"A boston creme and a soda."

Connnie started to laugh.

"_What?_" Stephanie asked irritably.

"Sugar withdrawal much?"

"This can't be sugar withdrawal. I gave up sugar before and I remember what that was like. I nearly killed Joe."

"Really?" Connie asked interestedly. "That one never made it onto the grapevine. What did you do, hit him with a blunt object or something?"

"No! I was just really-" Stephanie realized what she was about to say and flushed. "Never mind."

"Well, trust me on this, your blood sugar is dropping. Come on, we're getting out of here."

Connie went to the door and pulled the handle. The door didn't open. She tried it a few more times, just in case the door fairy was running late today, and still nothing happened. "I think we're locked in."

"What? Let me try." Stephanie tried the handle as well, with no better result. "Shit!"

"Now what?" Connie asked.

"Why the hell would we be locked in? Does he expect us to sit in here all night just picking locks? Just picking… Oh, you low-down, sneaky, conniving son of a _BITCH_!" She shrieked the last as she sprang to her feet and started looking around for cameras. She kept up the diatribe as she paced the room.

"I know you can see me, Ranger, and I hope you can hear me as well, because I'm promising you right now that when I find you, you are _DEAD!_ I am going to kick your ass into the middle of next _week,_ and don't even _THINK _that I won't find you, no matter how far into the wind you go. You'd better find a third world country to send yourself to, because so help me God I am going to kill you and I am going to bring my _grandma _to _HELP!_ _ASSHOLE!_"

Connie just watched, not wanting to get in the way of a Stephanie running on a combination of rage and sugar withdrawal. Ranger could forget the job, this qualified as punishment all on its own.

After a couple of minutes she decided that the best thing to do would be to start on the door lock and get them both out of there as soon as possible. The imminent threat of Hurricane Stephanie concentrated her mind wonderfully, and in less than five minutes she heard a soft click and the door swung into the room.

Stephanie was still prowling the room looking for the camera.

"Steph… _Steph!_" Connie indicated the open door.

Stephanie turned, and as soon as she saw the open door she stormed through it and was gone.

Connie followed at a slower pace. By the time she got out there was no sign of Stephanie at all, so she climbed the stairs and headed for the control room.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie wandered into the control room, where Tank, Lester and Hector were looking at the closed door to Ranger's office, open-mouthed.

"Tank, have you seen Steph?"

"Hell, yes. She just walked in there and started screaming at Ranger."

"She going to be okay in there?"

"If it was anyone else I'd be calling the ambulance right now, but since it's Bombshell, probably."

"Shouldn't you go in and check?" she prompted.

"Fuck, no. Do I look suicidal?"

"Coward."

"Where he's concerned, you're not wrong."

"Well I'm going in there then," Connie said, and she took a step towards the door.

"NO!" All three men spoke at the same time, and Tank put a restraining hand on her shoulder.

"Bombshell will be okay. Anyone else would not be. Just go and get something to eat in the break room and sit tight. One of us will watch the office just in case."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie found the break room and saw Hal already standing at the refrigerator.

"Hey, Connie. You've got a choice of tuna, chicken or roasted vegetables."

She was still distracted by the situation with Stephanie. "What? Oh, tuna."

Hal pulled out a tuna sandwich for her, added an apple, a banana and a cup of coffee, then brought it all over to one of the tables for her. "Sit."

"I can't… I shouldn't… what about Steph?"

"She's okay."

"But how do you _know_? Someone needs to check."

"I was with him when Stiva took her. Trust me, she's in no danger. But she's the only one I can say that for if she's pissed him off, so please, come and sit down and eat something. We've been waiting for you two to get out and find us for hours but you didn't even start trying until twenty minutes ago. Anyway, if something was going to happen, it would have happened by now."

"Sure?"

"Positive."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie was screaming by the time she had both feet inside Ranger's office. "You _son_ of a _bitch_, I can't believe you _did_ that to me! How _dare_ you lock us in like that! What, did you think it was _funny_, watching us work out that we were _trapped_?" She slammed the door behind her and marched over to where he had risen from his desk to meet her.

"Just giving you some incentive, Babe."

"You can't do that! You can't fuck with people like that!"

"If I think it's what you need, watch me."

"_Bastard!_" She swung at him. It was a wild, untargeted blow with no force behind it, and he caught her wrist in his hand and held it effortlessly.

"Don't," he said flatly.

She tugged her arm back, but he continued to hold her wrist.

"Let me go."

"You gonna try and hit me again?"

"_Please_." Her voice shook, and he dropped her wrist immediately.

"Christ, Steph, what's the matter with you? I wanted you to try to work under pressure, not lose it completely."

Tears sprang to her eyes and she started to shake.

"Fuck." In a second he was next to her and scooped her up into his arms.

She continued to tremble. "I don't know what's wrong."

"I do." He carried her out of the room and took her up to his apartment, where he settled her on the couch then called Ella to bring some scrambled eggs and toast. That done, he pulled a yoghurt from the refrigerator and brought it over to her. He handed her a spoon. "Eat."

She ate it obediently while he watched her. When Ella knocked at the door he got up to answer it and brought the eggs and toast over to Stephanie on a tray. He cut the toast, scooped some egg onto it and held it to her mouth. "Now this."

"I'm not a child."

"Thinking that you can live on sugar alone is something children do. Now eat."

She took the bite, chewed and swallowed it. She made a face. "Wholewheat?"

He sighed with exasperation. "You just proved that you're going to try to take me with you when you finally kill yourself. Just eat it." He cut another bite and held it out to her, then another, until it was all gone. Then he handed her a glass of orange juice mixed with water. "Feel better?"

"Yes," she mumbled quietly.

His cell went off.

"Yo… She's fine… Good call."

He ended the call. "Hal convinced Connie that I wouldn't kill you and took her home." He paused. "Stay here tonight."

She sucked her breath in sharply.

"Don't worry, I won't be here; I have a building to clear. Ella will bring you more proper food, which I expect you to eat, and I'll see you in the morning."

"I can't. There's things I need at home."

"Ella will deal with it. Just tell her what you need."

"I'm not sick," she protested. "I'll be fine."

"Please."

She gave in. "Okay."

o0o0o0o0o

She slept peacefully in the big bed in the quiet calm of the seventh floor apartment, and if she thought she felt the bed dip in the middle of the night and a warm presence curl around her, well she was alone when she woke in the morning. Maybe she dreamed it.

o0o0o0o0o

In the morning she retrieved one of her spare uniforms from the closet and showered and dressed quickly. When she came out of the bathroom she found breakfast waiting for her in the kitchen. Ella was a better sneak than any of the Rangemen. She wasn't sure how she felt about oatmeal, but there was a jug of cream and a small bowl of brown sugar with it that made it tolerable, and it was warm and filling.

She went down to the control room afterwards and found Ranger already in his office on the fifth floor. She went in and closed the door and leaned on it.

"More locks today?"

"No, you're done. Connie has enough now to do the job tomorrow night."

"Why did you lock us in?"

"It was an experiment. You two are the first ones that have learned in the safety of the building, so we needed to re-create a high-pressure environment. It worked with Connie; thanks in part to you, she opened that door in three minutes flat. You, on the other hand… well, that's the last time I lock up a pre-menstrual woman without putting on Kevlar first."

"You don't know that," she objected.

"Telling me I'm wrong, Babe?"

"Asshole," she said without heat.

Ranger sat in the Cayenne outside Connie's house. Most of her neighbors' lights were already out and the light shining through her living room window was the only one visible on the street at this late hour. He got out of the vehicle and eased up to the window. When he looked through he could see Connie sitting on the couch wearing black pants and a black sweatshirt. The TV was on but she wasn't watching it and she looked restless and ill at ease. Good.

He moved over to the door and in a matter of seconds he had let himself in. Three minutes was good for a beginner, but nothing compared to him. To be safe, you needed to use no more time than using a key would have taken.

He stepped forward and filled the living room doorway. She jumped with shock when she saw him and he noted her look of fear with grim satisfaction. "It's time."

She nodded mutely and followed him out.

o0o0o0o0o

They pulled up on the street outside a small, dilapidated house. It was set well back from the road in a large fenced lot, and the front and sides were completely surrounded by an overgrown yard. The lot itself was in an isolated position with no neighboring houses within view.

The overall effect was sinister, and Connie shivered as she looked at the darkened house.

Ranger threw her a familiar pouch, which she managed to catch despite her shaking hands.

"Get into the house without leaving traces if at all possible. You are looking for stock certificates to the value of approximately $100,000, which you should secure and remove. Start with the office if there is one, then widen the search if you need to. _Do not_ trash the place. You should leave little or no evidence of your presence behind afterwards."

"Am I recovering something that's been stolen?" she asked quietly.

"You don't need to know the reasons. Just do it."

She nodded and got out of the Cayenne.

She decided to start by circling the house and checking for any obvious weak points. That was the first problem straight away. The yard was so overgrown that she half expected to find Sleeping Beauty in there along with the stock certificates, but she needed to get off the street where she wasn't so visible.

She found the gate and gave it a hard push. It didn't move. The wood was damp and swollen, and thoroughly stuck. With a muttered curse she shoved her pouch into a pocket, wedged her foot into a space between two timbers and started to climb.

The timbers started to wobble alarmingly as she neared the top of the six foot high gate. She squeaked and held tight, trying not to lose her balance. Eventually she risked leaning forward and throwing a leg over the top of the gate, then stopped with one leg either side wondering what to do next.

Finally, she steeled herself and brought the other leg over the gate to join the first. She scrabbled to find a toehold further down the gate, but the rotting timber finally gave way and the piece that she was holding snapped, dumping her unceremoniously on her ass inside the lot.

She hit the ground with a strangled, "_Fuck!_" and sat there for a moment, winded. She mentally ran through a body checklist: arms not broken, check; legs not broken, check; ass broken, possibly; pride damaged, hell yes.

She hauled herself to her feet, wincing as a pain shot through her ass. She'd be borrowing Stephanie's tube of arnica cream again tomorrow, or maybe she should invest in her own.

She hobbled down the overgrown path in the darkness. Suddenly there was an unearthly shriek somewhere in the overgrown jungle and she froze. She could hardly breathe, and her heart felt like it might beat its way out of her chest. Something rustled in the shrubs to her right and she thought her heart might stop outright.

Gradually her eyes got used to the darkness and she saw a red fox making its way across the yard. It took a couple of minutes for her lungs to finally agree that they might actually work again and she stood for a few moments trying to let her breathing settle.

She made it to the house without any further shocks and checked the front door. Two locks, a latch and a deadlock. The latch would be easy enough, but the deadlock might take her hours. She decided to move round to the rear of the house and check out the other door.

Brambles had grown right up to both side walls of the house, and there was only a narrow gap available to squeeze through. She seriously wished that she had thought about a hat, or at least about braiding her hair tight to her head, before tonight.

"Bastard. I bet he picked this house deliberately."

She lost several chunks of hair to the carnivorous bushes and her sweatshirt was torn in three places before she finally made it through and onto a patio at the back. She looked around cautiously. The rear seemed to be equally secluded. If she was lucky she might even manage not to be arrested tonight.

The back door was a much better prospect, although she could hardly see without the benefit of the street lights at the front. There was one simple lock, and the door moved a little when she tried the knob. She pulled her pouch out and settled down to work.

o0o0o0o0o

It took her about twenty minutes in the dark, but eventually the lock opened and Connie sneaked into the kitchen. There was a strong smell of rotting vegetables. She stepped into something soft with a squelch and pulled her foot back quickly. "Ick! Eeew!"

The rotting vegetable smell was suddenly stronger, and she thought that she might have found the source the hard way. Her sneakers were going straight in the trash when she got home.

There was a rustle in the corner of the room and she turned her head quickly, but she couldn't see anything in the dark. "Oh God, not rats. Please don't let there be rats."

She pulled her penlight from the pouch. Lester had cautioned her against using the light except in dire emergencies. "Trust me, Lester, this is an emergency. Rats definitely qualify as an emergency," she murmured. She took a tentative step forward and something scuttled over the top of her foot.

o0o0o0o0o

Tank and Hal were sitting in a RangeMan SUV just out of sight when they heard a blood curdling scream in the house.

Hal was out of the SUV in an instant. He was about to climb the gate when Woody's voice came over the radio.

"Stand down, Hal. I have her on the monitors and she's okay."

"Then what the fuck was that scream about?"

"A rat just ran over her foot in the kitchen."

Hal cursed. "Are you sure we can't interfere?"

"You heard the orders as well as I did. No interference unless she's in danger or about to get arrested. The only danger she's in right now is of peeing in her pants."

Hal got back into the SUV. He glared at Tank. "You could have given me a chance to get to her before calling the control room."

Tank shrugged. "The man gave us orders. I'll have enough trouble explaining how you traded places with Woody so you could come tonight."

o0o0o0o0o

Logically, Connie knew perfectly well that she was in no danger from a single rat. They were scavengers, not predators of man. However, that didn't change the absolute, primal terror of feeling something run over her foot in the dark. Man hasn't evolved that far from his cave dwelling ancestors.

When she had recovered from the bowel-loosening panic she stalked over to the wall and slapped the light switch on. No sense in worrying about staying below the radar after that scream. Bright, yellow light flooded the room and, suddenly braver in the light, she looked around.

The floor was littered with rotting potatoes, carrots and tomatoes, liberally interspersed with rat droppings. There was a ragged hole at the edge of the room and dirty grease smears ran along the bottom of the walls. A pair of bright, beady eyes regarded her from behind a dusty dresser where the rat had fled.

"How long did it take you to set this up for me, you bastard?"

She spun and stalked through the door leading to the rest of the house. She found the office and quickly checked all the papers lying on top of the desk. No stock certificates. She tried the desk drawer. It was locked.

She could pick the lock. She _should_ pick the lock. Instead she gave the top of the desk a hard slam with her hand and yanked at the drawer at the same time. The drawer popped open, revealing a small bundle of stock certificates.

"You learn some things being around Vinnie this long. And I am _not_ a pervert."

She grabbed the certificates and walked out again, leaving the room lights blazing.

o0o0o0o0o

Hal was watching the house when the front door slammed open with a crash and Connie emerged. Her hair looked like a bird's nest, her sweats were torn in several places, one of her sneakers was dripping with rotten tomato and she was bristling with anger. He got out of the SUV and pushed the stuck gate open for her.

She stalked past him and scanned the street for the Cayenne. "Where is he? I'm gonna shove these up his ass sideways."

He slung one arm round her shoulders and steered her towards the SUV. "Wrong. You're going to come with me and Tank is going to drop us at the nearest bar. It's my turn to buy _you_ a drink."

The anger left her face and she sagged. "That sounds wonderful. We're stopping at my house for a change of clothes on the way, though."

o0o0o0o0o

"What I don' get … what I don' get, right, is how he gets away with his shit. Where does he ge' off with the whole 'big-bad-wolf, oooh-I'm-so-scary' gig?"

Connie took a long pull at her beer. "I mean, you'd think that the cops would be all over him li' a fuckin' rash, but nooo, he's all Mr 'I'm-above-the-law'. Morelli would love to kick his ass for poaching, but it's like he's fuckin' untouchable!"

She swayed a little unsteadily on her stool. "And then there's you guys. Great, big, scary private army and nobody bats an eyelid! I tell you, Trenton is like… is like … the Twilight Zone, and…"

Connie slowly slumped sideways until her head was resting on Hal's shoulder. "How does he pick you guys out, anyway? I mean, does he place an ad in Soldier of Fortune, saying 'Wanted – private army. Must be hot and look good in black'?"

She started to slide down his front as she tried to look up at him. "You know, you are soooo hot, _and_ you're nice. You should come work for Vinnie. Actually, no, scrap that, 'cause then everyone would think you're a perv too."

She jumped up and turned to face the room at large, and announced in a loud voice, "_I am NOT a pervert!_"

The elderly man sitting on the other side of her at the bar stood up too and joined her. "Neither am I! Silk panties just feel good against the skin. Everyone should be allowed to wear silk panties!"

She peered owlishly at him, swaying gently. "No. You, my friend, might actually be a pervert. Tell me, do you know Vinnie?"

And with that she keeled over backwards into Hal's waiting arms.

He scooped her up and turned to the bartender. "Can you call a cab for me, please?"

o0o0o0o0o

Connie woke up in the morning in her own bed. Her shirt and pants were still on but her shoes and socks had been removed, and her mouth felt like the bottom of a birdcage. There was a note on her bedside cabinet.

_I'll take the stock certificates into RangeMan with me tomorrow. You did great._

_H_


	5. Trial no 4

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.4

Stephanie woke to the smell of fresh coffee again. Since her little blood sugar crisis, Ranger had taken it upon himself to ensure that she ate a proper breakfast each day. When she challenged him he claimed that it was self-preservation. So, every morning she woke to find coffee and juice waiting for her, and either the breakfast fairies would have left something in her kitchen to go with it or he would be waiting to take her out for breakfast.

This morning was a breakfast fairy day, but this was the first day that she was able to conclusively prove that breakfast fairies came with mocha latte skin and an all-black wardrobe. The fairy in question was unpacking a foil container that looked like it contained an omelet with grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. It smelled almost as good as he did.

She sat down on a stool in the kitchen and buried her face in the coffee cup that he passed to her. "You know that you're breaking the breakfast fairy code of conduct by letting me see you, right?"

He just pulled some toast out of her toaster and transferred it to her plate.

"Where are your wings?" she asked.

"Babe."

"C'mon. Everybody knows that fairies have wings. You can't be my breakfast fairy and not have wings. It's cheating."

He put the plate in front of her. "Just making sure that you don't try to beat me to death some time this afternoon."

"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"

"Not in a hurry, no. What are your plans for today?"

She shrugged. "Pick up files from Connie. Try to catch whoever's in them. The usual."

"Come into the office first. Hal's requested additional training on skip tracing techniques. You can pick him up first and take him through the paperwork side of the work."

Stephanie froze with a forkful of omelet halfway to her mouth. "Me? You want me to train him?"

"He shouldn't need much. He's got most of the techniques down already, but he told Tank he wasn't confident with the paperwork."

"Okay. Just remember, you asked me. If he gets broken it's not my fault."

"Just eat your breakfast."

"Yes, Mom."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie picked up Hal at RangeMan and they drove to the bonds office to collect the day's files. She guided the SUV into a parking space at the rear and turned to Hal in the passenger seat. "So, this is where we collect the files. Connie gives us the files, and we sign a contract for each one authorizing us to apprehend them on Vinnie's behalf. You with me so far?"

Hal nodded. "Check."

"When we take a skip to the police station we collect a body receipt from the cops and give it to Connie. She then mails a check to RangeMan at the end of the week for all the body receipts we've given her that week. Still with me?"

"Yup."

"And that's it. Finis. So what exactly is it that you feel that you need to learn here?"

"I never feel happy until I've done it myself at least once," he said blandly.

"Ri-ight." She got out of the SUV. "In that case, it's time to stretch your intellectual muscles signing a bunch of authorizations."

Stephanie and Hal walked into the bonds office through the back door.

"Hang on, I'll be right with you!" Connie called from the store-room.

They sat down on the faded brown couch and waited.

Connie emerged a couple of minutes later. When she saw Stephanie and Hal on the couch she stopped dead. "Ahh… hi. I was just expecting Steph today. Um… not that it isn't great to see you… both. Um… let me get your files."

She reached for a pile of manila folders with suddenly shaking hands and knocked them on to the floor where they scattered across the floor of the office.

Hal jumped up and picked them up for her. He handed the pile back, fingers brushing hers as he did so.

Stephanie watched interestedly as Connie's face flamed. "Well, Hal, this is your big moment. Get signing those authorizations. I'm sure Connie has a pen that you can borrow. In fact, I'll leave you to it. I think I might have left my purse in the SUV. Connie, you'll help Hal, won't you?" She gave Connie an evil grin and walked out of the back door.

Connie made a face at Stephanie's departing back and waited for her to leave, then turned back to Hal. "I should thank you, for the drink and getting me home safe and everything." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I must have been a complete nightmare."

"You're kidding, right? You were fantastic. And I had fun," he smiled. "Plus, it's not every day that you see a woman who can inspire strangers in bars to confess to wearing ladies' underwear."

The door to Vinnie's office opened and he popped his head out. "What? Who was wearing ladies' underwear?"

"Not again!" Connie scowled. "Hal, help me find the fucking bug."

o0o0o0o0o

Hal found the bug on the underside of Connie's monitor within five minutes. He handed it to her with a flourish. "Your bug, fair lady."

"Thank you, kind sir." She accepted it, and reached into her purse. "Cover your ears."

She held the bug up to the office smoke alarm and pressed the test button. An ear-splitting screech resounded around the room, and they heard a muffled, "Christ!" in Vinnie's office.

She then walked into the tiny bathroom and ceremoniously flushed the bug.

Finally she opened a box of donuts sitting on her desk and waved them under Hal's nose. "I think we should celebrate Vinnie's temporary deafness, don't you?"

He looked longingly at the box. "Donuts? I can't tell you how long it is since I ate a donut. Ranger _really_ disapproves of donuts."

"Go on, you know you want to. Take a chocolate covered one. They have crème inside, too. They're Steph's favorites." Connie continued to hold the box out to him, moving it gently from side to side.

"For God's sake, woman, stop it. You're killing me here." But his eyes were fixed on the box.

"Just one."

"Damn it. Just don't tell Ranger. And don't tell Tank. Don't tell _anyone_," and he grabbed a Boston crème and stuffed it into his mouth. He closed his eyes and sat back on the couch with an expression of bliss. "Oh my Go', 'ats '_on_'erful," he sighed round a mouthful of donut.

Connie smiled and walked round her desk to where he sat on the couch. She leaned into him. "I own you now, you do realize that?" she murmured in his ear.

His eyes were still closed. "And somehow I can't find it in myself to mind. You are a wicked, wicked woman."

Stephanie walked in and saw Hal sitting on the sofa, still chewing with a blissed-out look on his face, and Connie leaning next to him. "My God, what have you done to him?" she asked.

"Expanded his horizons a little bit."

Stephanie spotted the open box on the desk. "Just as long as you don't expand his waistline as well. Ranger will be bound to blame me if you get him fat. Now give me one of those before Lula gets here."

o0o0o0o0o

An hour later Stephanie and Hal pulled up outside a scruffy row-house in the suburbs of Trenton.

"Okay, what have we got?" Stephanie asked.

"Joe Ross. Possession, car theft, dangerous driving and assault of a police officer. About a page of priors, most of them for possession or assault. He's a RangeMan regular."

"Suggestions?" she prompted.

"We've picked him up a few times already, and Ranger put him in the hospital when he tried to pull a knife one time. Last time, he ran when he saw it was us, so chances are he'll run again."

"I'll take the front, you go round the back," Stephanie decided. "Be ready for him to come out the back door in a hurry." She checked her gun and jumped out of the SUV.

A thin, greasy looking man opened the door when she knocked. "Yeah?"

"I'm from RangeMan Security. You are in violation of your… and there he goes."

Ross had turned at the word RangeMan and was pounding towards the back door.

She took her gun from her holster and followed him at a more leisurely pace. "As I was saying," she called, "you are in violation of your bail bond, and we are authorized to escort you to the court-"

"You have to catch me first, bitch." Ross yanked open the back door and ran straight into Hal's outstretched arm, knocking him straight off his feet. He lay on the ground gagging and coughing where Hal's forearm had hit his throat.

"No problem." Stephanie said sweetly as she stepped in and snapped the cuffs on him. "Good clothes-line," she commented to Hal.

"One of my favorites." Hal hauled him to his feet and dragged him over to the waiting SUV.

o0o0o0o0o

They had just collected their body receipt for Ross when Stephanie's cell rang.

"Yo."

"Babe, meet me at Big Jim's for lunch?"

"Sure, I can do that. We just left the station."

"Get Hal to drop you off. See you in twenty."

Stephanie ended the call and turned to Hal with a sweet, terrible smile.

He regarded her suspiciously. "What?"

"I have to be at Big Jim's in twenty minutes. That means that you're going to have to drop the body receipt in at the bonds office all on your own. Think you can handle it, tough guy?"

"I'm sure Connie will help if I have a problem," he replied without meeting her eyes.

"Oh, so am I, Hal. So am I. Just don't turn your back on Vinnie. You know about Vinnie, right?"

"No. What about Vinnie?" Hal asked with a nervous look in his eye.

"Oh, nothing."

Ranger was already waiting when Hal dropped Stephanie off and she walked into the restaurant. She had refused to tell Hal anything else about Vinnie. After letting her out he had driven off in a cold sweat and she had finally given in to the grin that she had been fighting for the last twenty minutes.

"Something funny, Babe?"

"Girl stuff. If I told you, I'd have to kill you."

He shook his head. "I'm better off not knowing." He waved the waiter over and ordered their usual. "How's Hal doing."

"Fine. I think he's happier now than he was before. He could probably cover the bonds office run easily enough if I were busy elsewhere." No need for Ranger to know why that might be. Hal could thank her later.

The food arrived and they stopped talking and ate in companionable silence.

o0o0o0o0o

When the food was finished and the table cleared, Ranger threw a file down. "Connie's next job. Distraction tomorrow night."

"Another one? Wasn't the last one bad enough?" She skimmed the file quickly. "And this one's worse. Why does it have to be her?"

"Information is that he's hanging out at the Ship. You've already done two distractions there in the last six months. That makes you too likely to get made. Jeanne Ellen's well known there as well. It has to be her."

"The Ship is a fucking zoo, except the animals are in charge." Stephanie shivered remembering the last two times she had been in there.

"That's why it has to be a distraction. We'll have more men in there than usual in case it goes bad."

"Make sure you do."

There was a somber atmosphere at Connie's house as Stephanie and Lula helped Connie to get into her red dress ready for the job.

Lula was quiet and withdrawn. Stephanie was wondering what to say for the best. She hugged her closely and whispered in her ear, "You're not alone, okay?"

She was scared for Connie, and she would have been scared to do this one herself. The skip was a bad one. The place was worse. Lula's grim face and quiet voice as she had told Connie what to do had brought the situation sharply home. No matter much Connie and Stephanie worked in it, this wasn't their world. It had been Lula's once, and it had treated her badly. And now Connie had to try to pretend that she was a part of it for a little while.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie walked into the bar and looked around. It was a lot more crowded than the hotel bar in Philly, and it was a world apart. The few women that could be seen had hard, over made-up faces and wore the kind of clothes that Lula favored. When Stephanie and Lula had forced her into the red dress in Macy's she had felt brassy and trashy. In here it made her look like a lamb that had wandered into a den of wolves. Her skin prickled with the stares that she was attracting, and Stephanie's caution and Lula's grimness suddenly made sense. She fought the urge to bolt and tried to look confident as she made her way to the bar. Her heart beat a tattoo against her ribs and she pressed her fingers against the leather of her purse to feel the comforting shape of her gun inside.

She sat down at the bar and ordered beer in a bottle on Stephanie's instruction. She wasn't to take her eyes off it for a second, and if she did, she had to ditch it and get a fresh one. Her hands trembled slightly as she put the bottle to her lips.

The skip was a pimp called Sonny Chambers. He had girls working in the bar and on the street, and he had a reputation for enjoying keeping his women in line. The plan was that she would ask him for work and suggest that she come outside with her to see what she could bring to his business. The thought made her queasy.

The crazy thing was, she had dealt with people like Sonny, his girls and his customers for more years than she could remember, but that was at the bonds office, where she was in charge of the game. They played her way or they stayed in jail. Being on the other side was a sharp lesson in power: who had it and what it meant to the ones who didn't. She was starting to realize the amount of power she normally had through her work and her family, even if she hadn't known it and didn't use it. Being powerless and knowing it was a frightening experience, even if there were two Rangemen outside waiting for her. In here, she felt desperately alone.

She remembered Lula's face when she had asked for her advice. Lula was one of the toughest women she knew; the one that had lived a worse life than she could imagine, that had been brutalized by a psychopath and still clawed her way up and out into a better life.

When she had made her request, Lula had shrunk a little, lost a little bit of her shine.

"You sure about this?" she had asked.

"It's the best that we can come up with."

"Then I'll tell you everything I can. But first you get on that phone and order a bucket of extra crispy from Cluck-in-a-Bucket, and you pour me a drink and you keep them coming, 'cause I'm gonna need them."

And Lula had eaten her chicken, and lined up the drinks, and told her how to look like the kind of woman that would interest a parasite like Sonny Chambers.

Connie had been glad that she hadn't eaten any of the chicken.

o0o0o0o0o

A large red-headed man with a shaggy beard and deep-set eyes joined Connie at the bar and leaned uncomfortably close to her. She shrank away from him. He had to be as big as Tank, but he smelled a whole lot worse, mainly of spirits and stale sweat, but with other things mixed in that she didn't want to think about. She fleetingly wondered if King Kong knew about his family of Trenton cousins, and whether they stayed in touch.

"You're new."

"I am," she replied.

"You working?"

"Not yet."

He looked her slowly up and down and her skin crawled in a wave that followed the passage of his eyes. His piggy eyes wore a greedy, possessive look that made her want to turn tail and run.

"So you here looking for a date?"

"Business."

He stroked a large tobacco-stained finger along her cheekbone, tracing the shape of the lurid bruise that Lula had painted on her face an hour ago.

"Pretty. I'll see you when your business is finished."

"Where do I find you?" Connie fought to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll find you. That's half the fun."

He grinned and walked away, finally disappearing into the darkness of one of the booths along the side of the room.

Connie let out a breath and scratched the bare skin of her arms. They felt as though maggots were crawling over them. Then her stomach roiled and she jumped from her stool and rushed to the bathrooms.

She locked herself in a stall and took a few deep breaths. When her stomach had settled she used the facilities then left the stall to wash up.

An emaciated looking young woman with stringy, dark hair and deep purple shadows under her eyes was waiting for her by the sinks.

"You don't work here."

"Not yet," Connie answered.

It looked like one of Sonny's girls was going to try to defend her territory.

"Do yourself a favor and get out of here," the woman continued.

"I just need to talk to Sonny."

"Sonny's bad news, and Gerard has noticed you. That's not something you want to happen. This isn't a place for you. You don't want to be here unless you want plenty more like that one," and she nodded at the bruise decorating Connie's cheekbone.

"I've got no other choices."

The dark girl shrugged. "Your funeral. Sonny's at the corner table by the jukebox.

"Thanks."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie found Sonny holding court at his table and sat down in the seat opposite. Sonny was another big man, if not quite the same size as the behemoth that had found her at the bar. He was African-American, with hair that had been relaxed and teased into elaborate curls plastered close to his head and a suit that looked like it was worth five times anything the rest of the men in the room were wearing.

He raised his eyebrows at her as she sat down. "You want something?"

"Jackie sent me, said that you'd take care of me." Connie silently blessed Lula for having the contacts to concoct a plausible story for her.

"I ain't runnin' no rescue service, and you ain't my type. Take a hike."

"Please." She inserted a tremor into her voice. It wasn't hard; she was running on adrenaline and her legs felt like water. Lula's instructions were running through her head. Be vulnerable, be a victim. He knows his own rep and he won't believe that you just felt like a change of employer. But if he thinks you have nothing and nobody else, that he can do whatever he wants and no-one will care, he'll think about it. "My man kicked me out for skimming. I've got debts, and I'm going to lose my apartment. My family cut me off. I just need someone to take care of me. I'm good, I swear."

"How good could you possibly be, little miss Catholic Italian girl? I don't need you. Get gone."

"Let me show you."

He looked at her with a gimlet stare. "Show me, and I'll think about it."

And this was where she prayed that they were ready for her, because Lula had made damned sure that she understood this part before she went in.

"You be sure about this, Connie, 'cause this ain't no dumb thief that thinks he might get lucky. He is gonna to try to hurt you. He is gonna to try to degrade you. If you give him half a chance he is gonna make sure that he scares you so bad that you get sucked in and you don't even think about gettin' out again. Now, I'm askin' you again. Are you sure about this?"

_No, Lula, I'm not sure, but I've come this far. No turning back._

She led him out through the passageway to the back door that opened out to the yard and the dumpsters. She opened the door and went to walk out into the night air and the Rangemen that were waiting for her. She never made it that far.

Sonny grabbed her by the hair and back-handed her across the face, hard. Using the fistful of hair he forced her to her knees in front of him. "Time to show me what you got, little girl."

o0o0o0o0o

Tank and Hal were waiting behind the dumpster when they heard the door open. The radio link flared into life, "She's in trouble, get in there."

They both took off with a curse and headed for the open back door. Hal got there first. He punched Sonny hard in the face to make him to let go of her hair, then pulled Connie up and away from him. He whirled and headed for the door with her, leaving Tank to take down Sonny.

Sonny was still reeling from Hal's punch and was no match for Tank. Tank spun him and cuffed him, then dragged him out by a handful of his elaborate hairstyle in much the same way that Sonny had manhandled Connie.

When they got out into the yard, Ranger was there with the SUV waiting for them. Hal sat Connie in the passenger seat and turned to go back to where Sonny was being dragged out by Tank. He came face to face with Ranger, who was standing in his path with an implacable look on his face.

"Sir, I-"

"You what, Hal?"

"I just-"

Ranger continued to stare at him, then he stepped to one side without changing his expression. "He's yours. No marks."

Tank dropped Sonny to the ground and stepped away, wiping the coating of hair product off his hand using his pants leg. "Picked the wrong woman, asshole."

Hal moved in.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie sat in the SUV and shivered as the shock set in and joined the chill of the night air.

Suddenly Tank loomed large in her vision and she nearly wept with gratitude to see his familiar, stoic face. He wrapped a blanket around her, carefully standing in front of her so that he completely blocked her view of the proceedings. She knew what was happening, though. She could hear.

Another black SUV pulled up next to the one that she was sitting in and Hector got out. She watched Hal and Ranger drag Sonny's inert body over to the other SUV and shackle him into the back seat. Tank put a warm hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently before walking over to the other vehicle and getting in next to Sonny. Hector moved to the passenger seat so that Ranger could drive, and then they were gone.

Hal appeared in front of her. He buckled her seat belt for her, then got into the other side and pulled the SUV out of the yard.

He drove to a McDonalds drive-through and ordered a hot chocolate, which he pressed into her hands. "Tell me your address and I'll take you home."

She told him and he drove there, slowly and quietly, giving her time to drink the warm drink and gradually stop shaking.

o0o0o0o0o

When they got there he parked the SUV and got out to come round to her side. He took the empty cup out of her hands and threw it into the back seat, then helped her out of her seat and took her arm to help her walk to her door.

The house was dark and empty, and Hal saw Connie curl up into herself.

"Do you know what we do for Steph when we go to her apartment?" he asked.

"No." Her reply was barely audible.

"We check it for stalkers and bogeymen, make sure it's safe for her to go in. I think it would be best if I check your place too, just to be safe."

He walked in without waiting for an answer, leaving her to stand in the hallway. He walked into the living room and turned all the lights on before waving her in. "Sit, while I check the rest of the house."

He systematically worked through the house, closing curtains, turning on lights, chasing the shadows away. When he got upstairs he pulled out his cell and rang Stephanie. "She's scared but okay," he murmured quietly. "Leave it with me?" Evidently he got the answer he wanted, because he put the phone away and continued to switch on lights on the second floor.

Finally he went downstairs and sat in one of the chairs where he could face Connie. He leaned towards her, resting his elbows on his knees. "Your house is officially free of bogeymen. How do you feel?"

"Weird. Cold. Lonely."

"Then it's good that I'm guarding your castle tonight. You own me now, remember?"

She nodded vacantly, not really concentrating.

"Come on, fair lady. Your bed awaits." He took her hand and pulled her from her chair then took her to the bathroom, where he left her to wash the fake bruising and cosmetics off while he found her a pair of pajamas. Handing them to her around the bathroom door, he then walked away to give her some privacy.

She shuffled down the hall into her bedroom only to find him seated in a chair in the corner of the room.

"I hope you don't mind me moving your furniture around," he said.

"You're staying here?"

"Consider it my knightly vigil."

She was too tired to argue. Crawling into bed she curled up under the covers and slept deeply, without dreams.

o0o0o0o0o

Hal settled into the chair with the ease of someone used to countless surveillance jobs. He watched the sleeping woman; he hoped that he'd done enough to keep the nightmares at bay for her, and that she wouldn't be frightened of him after what she had seen tonight. Taking your personal issues out on skips wasn't part of the job and he knew he'd have to answer to Ranger for it tomorrow. His actions tonight had let Ranger know quite how much of a personal issue Connie Rosolli had become, and he was going to catch hell for it.


	6. Trial no 5

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.5

The sound of clattering downstairs in her kitchen woke Connie with a start. She looked blearily at her clock; it was nearly 9 o'clock and either she had slept straight through her alarm or someone had turned it off. She swung her legs out of bed and walked towards the door, accidentally stubbing her little toe on the chair that wasn't normally there on the way.

"OW! Damn!" She hopped around on the floor holding the throbbing toe in her hand. "Shit!"

"Connie?"

She heard a male voice call her name at the same time as there was a loud pounding on the stairs. Hal burst through the door. She started with surprise and overbalanced, landing on her ass with a thump.

"What happened?" he asked, extending a hand to pull her to her feet.

She waved weakly at the offending chair. "When furniture attacks." She sat on the edge of the bed and massaged her foot. "I didn't know that an all night guard was part of the RangeMan employment package?"

She was too busy inspecting her sore toe to notice Hal looking a little shifty.

"Got to look after our people until they find their feet."

"Yeah, except the chair got there first."

His jaw set as he noticed the fresh bruise blooming on her cheekbone. "Son of a bitch got you bad. You got any ice in your freezer?"

"Yeah, in a bag near the bottom somewhere."

"I'll be right back."

o0o0o0o0o

After a few minutes Connie threw on a robe and headed downstairs. She found Hal peering down into her freezer doubtfully.

"No luck?" she asked.

"I can't see any."

"Let me look." She pushed in front of him and leaned precariously over into the freezer. She started moving packages around, continuing to talk as she looked for the ice. "You know, you're living proof of the male-as-hunter theory1. If the bag made a break for it I bet your macho, prey-spotting vision would have spotted it, but can you see something sitting still right under your nose? Noooo."

While the top half of her body was still inside the freezer she heard the back door open and a familiar voice call out to her.

"Hey, Connie, any chance of some… and who the hell are you?"

She straightened up to find her brother standing at the open back door engaged in a stare-down with Hal. Hal had his arms folded and the patented RangeMan blank look on his face.

"Oh, knock it off, Tony."

The younger, dark haired man broke away grinning. "It's the brotherly thing to do." Then he caught sight of her face and his went dark and thunderous. "You want to tell me where that came from?"

He moved towards Hal with angry intent. Hal unfolded his arms and looked prepared to stop him getting much closer.

"Enough!" She crossed the room and stepped between them, facing her brother and stopping his forward motion. "I got this," she pointed to the bruise, "doing bond enforcement work, which has been agreed to be my business and no-one else's as you damn well know. The guy that gave it to me is probably in the hospital. He," and she jerked her head back over her shoulder towards Hal, "is the reason why he's in the hospital, and he's here at my invitation. So back the fuck off out of my business unless I say otherwise."

She took a step backwards and leaned her back against the wall of muscle behind her; much the same way that Stephanie did with Ranger occasionally when she wanted to make a point, or when she thought no-one was watching.

She immediately realized why; it felt like the safest place in the world. Hal wrapped an arm around her waist and she jumped slightly in surprise.

Tony was backing away, shaking his head. "Okay, I won't intrude, but Connie, be careful. You get hurt and this is going to get real bad, real fast."

"I know, but I'm fine. You still want breakfast? I assume that's why you're here."

"Suddenly, I'm not hungry." Tony went back out through the back door and slammed it behind him.

Connie sighed. "Hal?"

"Yeah?"

"You can let go now."

"Sorry."

o0o0o0o0o

She wrapped crushed ice in a washcloth and made coffee while Hal finished cooking the breakfast that he had started earlier.

Just as they were about to eat, Hal's cell rang.

"Yeah?… Shit, how long?… Thanks, man, I owe you one."

He jumped up from the table and headed for the front door. "Gotta go. Ranger's back on-line and headed for the office. You're covered for the bonds office today and not expected in, so just take it easy."

He was almost at the door when he turned around and rushed back to the table. He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. "Sorry for that, too," then he was gone.

She blinked in confusion for a few moments, then finally shook her head and carried on with her breakfast.

Stephanie woke in her apartment at around 9.30. She thought that she could smell Bulgari faintly in the room, although that might have been from Ranger's tee-shirt that she currently had hidden under her pillow. The tee-shirt wouldn't account for the slight rumpling of the other side of her bed, though, nor would it tell her the actual cause under interrogation. Neither would its original owner; if she confronted him he would just give her a blank look and a non-committal 'Babe'.

She picked up her cell and called Hal. "Good morning, how is she?… Good….I'll ask Lula to take some lunch over for her later…. Aww, are you wasting away? I'll get you something on my way in if you want. If you want to hide in the gun cupboard while you eat it I'll even make it an Egg McMuffin.… Welcome to the slippery slope of bad nutrition, my friend. Now, are you in, or do you want to find some bran cereal with skim milk in the break room?… For what you did last night, I'll throw in a room deodorizer too.… Of course I know what you did.… Well how do you think I know?… If he is planning to kill you, he didn't tell me on the phone…. The way I see it, you might as well make your last meal a good one…. Okay, I'll see you in a little while. I'll call you from the basement and you can eat it in my car."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie spent the morning at RangeMan doing searches and making calls for her open cases as well as watching Hal jump every time a door opened or closed. Eventually she took pity on him and wandered into Ranger's office.

"You busy?"

"Come on in anyway."

She wandered over to his desk and took her usual seat perched on his lap. She inspected the papers in front of him. "Timesheets? You must be bored half to death."

"You have no idea. Sometimes I wish I was still just a bounty hunter."

"I remember you back when I was trying to catch Joe. No uniforms, just bling and ghetto-speak."

"And you trying to catch skips in a skirt and giving them your gun to shoot me with," he replied dryly.

"Interesting times."

"Good times."

"Only you could remember being shot and think it was good. And maybe Lester."

She decided that it was safe to bring the subject of Hal up. "You know that Hal is dying in slow degrees out there waiting for you to catch up with him about last night."

"I know. He's not in trouble about last night."

She was speechless for a second. "You think maybe you could let him know that?"

"No. Letting him swing for the day is punishment for eating the Egg McMuffin that you smuggled in to him this morning."

She shook her head. "You are unbelievable. And how did you know about that anyway?"

"I have ways. Interested in a deal?" His expression was bland.

Stephanie's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"I'll let him off the hook right now if you let me come with you this afternoon to hunt skips."

"You must be really bored."

"Just make my day and tell me you've got some that might fight back," he said.

"I'm sure I can find you one. You go and put him out of his misery and I'll meet you in the garage with the open files."

o0o0o0o0o

They met up downstairs and took the Cayenne out.

Ranger's manner had eased noticeably as soon as they started driving. "So, tell me what we've got."

"Is that eagerness I detect in your voice, Mr Manoso?"

"Is that the voice of a woman that wants to go back onto permanent search duty?"

She winced. "Okay, no more teasing. It'll take me a while to sort out the files with the best chance of some action for you, though. What do you want to do until then?"

He took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a heated glance.

"Apart from that. Jeez, enough with the testosterone overload."

"Just find me someone to hit and maybe you'll get back to the office with your virtue intact."

"You're scary sometimes."

"Glad you're finally working that out, Babe."

After a few minutes sorting through files, Stephanie found one. "Okay, I've got a possible. Gordon Hoskins, assault with a deadly weapon plus assorted smaller charges. Stated address in Newark plus an address for the girlfriend in Trenton. She arranged the bond with Vinnie. She has priors for petty theft and prostitution. He's worth $40,000 to us, and you'll be delighted to know that he resisted arrest when they picked him up."

"Sounds perfect. Let's check him out first."

o0o0o0o0o

Hoskins' apartment was in the basement of an old house. The door was at the bottom of a short flight of concrete steps. Iron railings partially hid the entrance from the road.

They moved cautiously down the steps and got into position then knocked on the door. There was no answer.

Ranger surveyed the area. "Perfect."

"What? Why is him not being home perfect?" Stephanie asked.

He took one of her hands and opened it flat, lazily tracing small patterns across the skin of her palm and fingers as he did so. Her breath caught and she watched his fingers move through hazy vision as her skin heated wherever they touched. Suddenly he placed a small pouch into her hands and pressed her fingers closed around it, jolting her out of her reverie.

"Because, Ms Plum, you have yet to pass the company B and E exam. You get to open the door." He stepped aside to take a position where he could keep watch.

"Asshole," Stephanie muttered under her breath as she bent to the lock and got to work.

To her surprise, she opened it in less than five minutes. She stayed crouched down in position as the door swung gently open in front of her.

Ranger pulled her to her feet and kissed her fast and hard. "That's my girl. Now let's go find me a bad guy to take my frustrations out on."

Stephanie furrowed her brow. "What frustrations?"

He swung round in the doorway and stared at her.

"Oh. Those," she murmured.

They stepped over a large pile of junk mail and quickly worked through the dingy apartment looking for traces of recent occupation.

Stephanie opened the refrigerator and recoiled. "Either he's running a cheese factory or he hasn't been using the milk."

"I don't think he's been here lately, and there's no mail of interest. Let's move on to the girlfriend's place."

_o0o0o0o0o_

The girlfriend's apartment was on the top floor of another converted house. There was a strong smell of overcooked cabbage in the stairwell and the walls were painted a sludgy yellow color that spoke of decades of cigarette smoke and grime. The carpet was blackened and tacky with ancient grease and they could feel their feet tearing free with each step across it.

They got to the top floor and knocked at the door. A middle-aged woman with a head of frowsy platinum blonde hair with dark roots opened the door. She had a leathery tan and a sagging neck to go with it.

"We're looking for Gordon Hoskins, ma'am. Is he home?" Stephanie asked. Ranger stood silently behind her, blocking the doorway.

She looked nervous, and she wouldn't look directly at either of them. "I don't know anyone by that name."

"Now why do I think you're lying?" Ranger asked.

Stephanie cut in. "We represent Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and we are authorized to apprehend Mr Hoskins. We know that you arranged bail for him, and since we suspect that he is on the premises, we do have the right to enter and conduct a search. Now, you can help us or we can do this the hard way."

"He ain't here," the woman answered.

Ranger gave her a mirthless smile. "Shall we find out?"

Stephanie took the woman firmly by the arm and drew her out into the hall. "Come with me, please. You can go back in after the search."

"He can't just walk into my place like that!"

"You want to be the one to tell him that?"

The woman fell silent and allowed Stephanie to guide her to a corner in the hallway outside the apartment where she stood in front of her.

Ranger walked through the apartment and started checking the rooms. He cleared the living room and bedroom before finding the bathroom door locked. "Who's in the bathroom, ma'am?"

Stephanie still had the woman penned in a corner outside. "You'd better tell him."

She just shook her head.

"She's not going to answer," Stephanie called back.

"What a shame," Ranger answered as he raised a boot and gave the door a hard kick. The bolt ripped off the door as it swung open.

A heavyset man with thinning hair rushed out with a section of shower pole in his hands and swung it at Ranger's head. Ducking under the path of the pole, Ranger rose up and knocked it out of his assailant's hand before he could start another swing. At the same time he kicked one of the man's legs away. As he dropped to the floor Ranger turned him over and quickly secured him in a painful hold with one arm twisted behind his back. It was over almost before it had begun.

_xxxxx_

When she heard the bathroom door crash Hoskins' girlfriend panicked and tried to push past Stephanie to get back into the apartment.

Stephanie pushed her back into the corner as gently as she could and pinned the woman's arms to her sides as she used her weight to hold her there. "Don't. You can't stop this," she said gently. She restrained her there for the minute or so that it took for Ranger to take down Hoskins and bring him out.

She finally released her when Hoskins was out of the apartment and on his way down the stairs in cuffs. "You can go back inside now. We're taking him straight to the station; you can call the bonds office for someone to meet you there if you want to bond him out again, it's up to you." Then she followed Ranger and Hoskins down the stairs and helped shackle Hoskins into the back seat of the Cayenne before they drove to the station.

"Good work, Babe," Ranger commented as they pulled out. "I was wrong about something, though."

"What about? This was a textbook job."

"Having someone to hit hasn't solved anything."

Her face flushed as she remembered Lula's violent movie theory and she buried her face in the pile of case folders to hide it.

_xxxxx_

They were heading out of the station with the body receipt when they met Morelli coming in through the door from the car park. He and Stephanie stopped for a moment, not quite sure what to say to each other. Ranger carried on quietly and went out to the Cayenne to give them some privacy.

"Hi, Steph." Joe spoke first.

"Joe."

"Who'd you bring in?" he asked.

"Hoskins."

"Good catch."

She shrugged.

"I won't keep you. I just wanted to say one thing, Cupc… _Steph_. Don't avoid me. You don't have to, okay?"

She nodded, then headed for the door. When she got there she stopped and looked back. "Thanks, Joe."

She opened the door and went out to the Cayenne.

_xxxxx_

It was a quieter drive back to the office than it had been coming out. Ranger was in his zone, his face firmly shuttered. The chatter about cases and getting out of the office had ended, and when he finally spoke as they drove into the garage, he was all business.

"I have to get back to work. You can take the body receipt for Hoskins in tomorrow when you make the bonds' office run. If you stop by my office tomorrow morning before you go I'll have Connie's next job ready for you as well."

Stephanie came into the office at 9 o'clock the next day and headed straight to Ranger's office. She stopped short in confusion when he wasn't there. She was sure that he'd said the morning. She assumed that something had come up and went back to her desk to do some searches while she waited for him

At 11 she gave up on waiting and went to Tank's office instead.

"You seen Ranger?"

"Out seeing a client. He gave me this to give to you." Tank held out a manila file.

She took it and flipped through it. "It's a skip file. Shit, Tank, he's got a rap sheet for violent crime three pages long."

"So take back-up."

"No, you don't get it. This isn't for me, it's for Connie."

Tank sucked in a breath. "Fuck that. You take Hal with you, like usual. Then you pick Lula up and go shopping for the day or something. Out of town. You understand me?"

She walked around the desk and hugged him. "You're a good man, Tank. I may have to take Lula to Victoria's Secret, just for you."

"Just get out of here before Ranger sees us and shoots my ass."

"Yes, boss." She saluted and walked out of the office to go and find Hal.

Tank pulled his cell out of his pocket and dialed. "It's done…. Hal…. Will do."

_xxxxx_

Hal and Stephanie arrived at the bonds' office at midday. Connie was in her usual position at her desk and Lula was half-heartedly filing using a method which involved a large bite of donut for every file put in the drawers.

"Hey, guys." Stephanie grabbed the donut box and threw herself down on the couch. She jerked her head towards Vinnie's door and mimed as she mouthed the words, "He listening?"

Connie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

Lula held her finger up in the universal gesture for 'one moment' then said in a loud voice, "You know, I ran into Jackie last week, and you wouldn't believe what she told me. Some sorry-assed john wanted to know if she'd get it on with a horse while he watched. Do you believe that?"

They fell silent and listened for a response in Vinnie's office.

"Reckon we're clear." Lula said.

"Excellent. Connie, your next job is a skip. He's bad news, so I've arranged for Hal to help, provided you don't tell Ranger."

Lula gave Hal a searching look. "This is Hal? From the other night?"

Hal looked up from his inspection of the contents of the donut box. Stephanie nodded.

Lula stood right in front of him with her hands on her hips. "You worked Sonny over real good. He's still hurtin' bad. And I got a message for you from some people on Stark Street."

Hal tensed.

Lula put one hand on each side of his face and laid a huge kiss square on his mouth. "Thank you. Ain't many of us in that life by choice, and it ain't often that we get a chance at payback. Thank you."

He opened his mouth several times before managing to get anything out. "You're…. you're welcome."

Lula carried on. "And the second part of the message is that your money ain't no good in certain quarters. Just visit with ol' Lula so that I can make the introductions."

Hal turned beet red. "Please-" He stopped to take a deep breath and started again. "Please tell the…. ladies that that won't be necessary. I'm glad that I could help."

Lula winked. "Oh, they ain't all ladies. The boys appreciated it just as much. Whatever floats your boat, honey."

A look of panic crossed his face.

Stephanie cut in. "Before you expand his horizons any more, Lula, we need to get out of here. We have shopping to do, and I have a gift to arrange for your man. Hal, if anyone asks, you guarded my body all day."

"Got it."

_xxxxx_

When the girls were gone Hal waved the manila file at Connie. "Want to see what we have to do?"

"Pass it over."

"Not a chance."

She raised her eyebrows. "You expect me to sit on that couch with you? You forget, I've seen the visitors that sit on it."

He jumped up, and she smiled evilly. "Gotcha."

"I burn toast for you in the morning and this is the thanks I get?"

"No-one said being a hero was easy." She got up from her desk and flopped next to him on the couch. "Fine, I'm here. Talk to me."

"Sam Picket, aggravated assault."

"I remember him. We have half his apartment in the store-room. Works at a food factory up on Route One."

"We'll start with his apartment then go and see if anyone at the factory has seen him."

_xxxxx_

The apartment was locked up and quiet. Connie used her new lock picking skills while Hal kept watch. It looked as though Sam had been there recently. The food in the fridge still looked like food and there was recently opened mail on the table.

"We'd normally wait for him to come home in situations like this, but I don't know how long I have since I'm not supposed to be here," Hal said. "Let's head up to the factory and try our luck there. We can check a few other places on the way."

_xxxxx_

By the time they got there it was nearly 4 o'clock. The food factory turned out to look a lot like a small, run-down warehouse from the outside. The main building stood to one side of the lot, and there were a series of sheds to the other. Half a dozen women wearing grubby white overalls were clustered around a side door smoking. An unmarked white truck was being loaded up with boxes at the main entrance.

"You join the group and see if they'll tell you anything. I'll try the guys loading the truck," Hal directed.

Connie nodded and walked over to where the women were collected. He watched her for a moment then headed for the truck.

"Hey guys, I'm looking for a buddy of mine, Sam. He around?"

The two men didn't stop loading the boxes.

"Nope," one of them answered.

"Know where I might find him?"

This time they both stopped and looked him up and down, taking in the buzz cut, the black jeans and the green polo shirt that strained across the muscle underneath.

"Nope."

Then they carried on loading boxes.

Possibly this undercover stuff was a little harder than it originally looked. He looked over to the gaggle of women on their cigarette break and hoped that Connie was having better luck.

Possibly it depended on whether your definition of luck included a smoker's cough, because she was leaning against the door with a lit cigarette in her hand, and she was deep in conversation with the women. He watched her say something, and as one they shifted their gaze to where he was standing. Two of the younger women giggled and the older ones looked positively predatory. He was sure that he'd seen that look before when he was watching the National Geographic channel, usually just before something got dragged down and eaten while it was still kicking. They turned back to Connie and she nodded once, then they all laughed. At that moment, he was absolutely certain that he didn't want to know what Connie had said to them.

The vehicle behind him started up and pulled out of the lot, leaving just the women outside. They were putting out their cigarettes and starting to go back into the building, so he walked over to where Connie was standing. As soon as the last woman was inside she had ground the cigarette out on the ground with distaste.

"How did you get on?" he asked.

"I can get you a date for Saturday night if you're interested."

"I've seen kinder looking wolf packs, and never tell me what you said to them to make them look like that. Just tell me that you have a lead on Sam."

"Better than that, he's here somewhere. Came in looking worried a couple of hours ago and disappeared into the site somewhere. They suggested that we might want to check out the sheds. Turns out that Sam hasn't made many female friends around here. A little too free with his hands, if you know what I mean."

For the first time in his life, Hal wished that men talked as much as women did. Then he remembered his mother and sisters and changed his mind. You could have too much of a good thing. "Let's go for a look round. Do you have a gun?"

Connie produced a gun from her purse that looked like it could take down an elephant. "This do?"

"Damn. Remind me not to piss you off."

_xxxxx_

The factory was starting to wind down for the day, so there weren't many people around. They found the security guard and warned him that they were hunting a bail jumper on site. He didn't seem much interested and stayed in his booth at the gate with his portable TV and flask of coffee.

They worked out a simple system as they gradually checked out the storage sheds. They would open the door cautiously, then Hal would move in with gun drawn and check out the room. Connie would stay at the door, watching for Sam in case he was outside and ready to prevent an escape if Hal flushed him from a hiding place inside. The first four sheds revealed nothing, just cartons of empty packaging in one, trays of wrinkled fruit in the next, cans of fruit puree and drums of cooking oil in the third. The fourth held dry goods. Sacks of flour and sugar were stacked five high on pallets in the center of the room. Hal skirted carefully around the edge of the stack. There were way too many places to hide around here.

Something rustled in a corner and he spun to face it with his gun raised. A rat looked back at him through beady eyes. "Fuck."

"What's going on?" Connie called from the doorway.

"Rat."

"I notice _you_ didn't scream."

"If it ran over my foot I might have."

_xxxxx_

The door to the fifth shed was unlocked and when they eased it open quietly they found the lights already on. Large vats of uncooked cake batter sat in the center of the room and more drums of oil were stacked around the edges. They drew their guns and moved silently into position, Connie by the door and Hal further into the room.

Something moved in a corner and Hal turned to cover it, half expecting another rat. Instead a skinny man with long, greasy, blonde hair emerged from a corner behind the oil drums with his hands up.

"Sam Picket?" Hal asked.

The man nodded and moved out of his corner. "I'm coming in. Shoulda know better than to try and run anyway."

He got level with the vats and Hal started to lower his gun. As soon as he did, Picket ducked behind the vats and heaved at one of them. Thick batter poured across the floor from the vat, followed by more as he tipped another, then another. Kicking the upended vats so they would start rolling, Picket scrambled for the door on his hands and feet in the confusion. Hal jumped out of the way of the rolling vats and raised his gun.

Connie saw the movement. "Don't shoot him!"

Hal cursed and tried to grab him instead, but the batter all over the floor had made it dangerously slippery. He slipped and slid across the floor trying to keep his footing. Finally he just made a dive across the vats and made a grab for him. They both fell to the floor in a chaotic tangle of arms and legs, Hal trying to keep hold of Picket as he squirmed and thrashed.

The trip to the floor had coated them both in batter and Hal was badly winded from landing across one of the vats on his wild dive. He felt his grip slipping. Picket felt it too and renewed his efforts to break free. Finally he managed to get away and slipped and slid towards the door.

He flung open the door, dismissing the woman standing next to it. It was a mistake. Connie reversed the gun in her hand and rapped him smartly across the temple with the butt. He went down like a falling tree to lie senseless on the floor.

She pulled a pair of cuffs from her pocket and rolled him to the rail that ran alongside the walkway outside. When he was securely cuffed to the rail she came back into the shed.

Hal was sat on the floor in the puddle of batter, covered in it from head to foot.

Connie put her hands over her face. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry! I just didn't want him shot. You wouldn't believe the trouble we get into when skips get shot."

Hal waved a hand helplessly. "Whatever. Jeez, I'm covered in the stuff."

"Let me help you." Connie extended both her hands.

He looked at her dubiously. "I'm a little heavier than you."

"Since it's my fault you're down there, at least let me try," she said, and she took one of his enormous hands in both of hers.

"Connie, I don't think-"

Connie leaned back and heaved, and one foot shot out in front of her on the slippery floor. She landed flat on her back in the same puddle of batter that he was already sitting in.

"-it's a good idea."

She sat up gingerly and rubbed her hands together to try and scrape some of the batter from them. "Ya think?"

"Possibly not," he said. "You okay?"

She reached a hand out toward his face and flicked away a glob of batter that was dripping from his ear. A giggle bubbled up in her throat. "You look ridiculous."

His face creased into a smile. "So do you."

"We are possibly the worst bounty hunters in the world."

He started to laugh. "No, Steph and Lula burned down the pot house, remember."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure Steph ever got her bra filled with cake batter, even on her worst day." Her giggles were fast becoming uncontrollable laughter.

He was laughing too. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah. And it's cold, sticky and uncomfortable."

"Well, no gentleman could allow a lady to stay cold, sticky and uncomfortable. Let me help you," and he made a playful grab towards the vee of her sodden tee-shirt.

She shrieked with laughter, "Oh no, don't you _dare_!" and promptly slipped backwards into the pool of batter again.

He followed her down, making a show of trying to tear the tee-shirt off her, and tickling her until she squealed.

"Get off. _Get off. _I am so going to get you for this. Hal, you _swine_!"

And then his lips were on hers, and suddenly the pool of batter didn't matter and revenge was the last thing on her mind.

_xxxxx_

"Hello? Somebody? Help!"

Sam Picket's plaintive calls dragged Connie's attention away from the kind of kiss that she'd always heard whispers about in school. The kind that went on in the quiet under the bleachers. The kind that she had always wished that she could have and had never gotten. If she could just get rid of the cake batter it would probably count as one of the best moments in her life. Unfortunately, as soon as Picket's whimpering dragged her back to reality, she was reminded about the cold, sticky mess over and under her clothes. It was starting to make her itch as it dried on her skin.

She broke the kiss and pushed Hal away. "We need to get going before someone hears him."

He nodded and climbed to his feet, then reached down and pulled her up as well.

Picket was sitting up looking as sticky and uncomfortable as Connie currently felt. She unlocked the cuff from the rail and relocked it around his other wrist behind his back while Hal stood over him daring him to try anything else. Together they frog-marched him back to the SUV.

As they passed the security booth, the guard inside looked at the three sticky figures in horror.

"Your rat problem is _way_ out of hand," Connie said to him. "They're have a colony in the cake batter. They nearly took us down. You should go check it out. Take your gun."

Hal nodded impassively in agreement and they walked out to the SUV, got in and drove away.

1 An interesting little theory discussed in Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps: How We're Different and What to Do About It. Finally, evidence for why neither my husband nor my son can ever find the cheese in the fridge. Answer – because it's not running away. An interesting and entertaining book, although not one to slavishly believe every word of.

./Dont-Listen-Women-Cant-Read/dp/0752846191/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1200839764&sr=8-1


	7. Trial no 6

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing. _

_This chapter has a very mild smut warning._

Trial no.6

"She got him!" Stephanie burst into Ranger's office, stopping when she found it silent and empty. "Ranger?"

She turned around and went into the neighboring office instead. "Tank, have you seen Ranger?"

"In the wind."

"How long for?" she asked.

"Maybe a week. Problem?"

"No. It's just that he didn't… never mind. I'm going out to meet the girls. Call me if you need me."

"Sure thing."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie walked into the bonds office an hour later carrying a large box wrapped with a wide yellow ribbon, a couple of bottles of wine and a stack of paper cups.

Lula looked up from where she was lounging on the couch reading a copy of Cosmopolitan. Connie was probably the source of the noises coming from the store-room.

"I bring cake," Stephanie announced, brandishing the box.

Lula threw down her magazine and joined Stephanie at the desk, where she opened the box to reveal a large sheet cake covered with roses and frosting.

"Happy Birthday," Lula read out loud. "Why exactly are we eating birthday cake?"

"Because 'Well Done' wouldn't have been ready till Wednesday and Connie should have her 'well done' today," Stephanie replied. "Connie, get out here, I brought you cake!"

Connie popped her head out of the store-room. "Why?"

"Because you're halfway through! Five down, five to go. I say we eat cake, drink wine and go shopping."

"I'm in," Lula said immediately.

Connie looked dubious. "I shouldn't really go out shopping. What about the office? I was already out most of yesterday finding Picket."

"Is Vinnie in?" Stephanie asked.

"Yeah."

"So the office is covered. Just take your cell with you. We need to celebrate."

Connie shrugged. "What the hell. I'll get a knife."

She disappeared into the storeroom and came back with an antique samurai sword, which she used to carefully cut the cake into slices. She looked up to find Stephanie and Lula staring at her. "What? I'll clean it afterwards."

Stephanie just shrugged and poured wine into three paper cups then handed them out. She raised her cup in Connie's direction. "To Connie. Great job." Lula followed suit and they each drank a large slug of wine and took a slice of cake.

"Good cake," Lula mumbled through a large mouthful of sponge.

"Beauty of birthday cake. It tastes good whatever the occasion. More wine?" Stephanie held the bottle out in her direction.

Lula nodded and held her cup out.

o0o0o0o0o

When the cake and the wine were all finished they got up to go shopping. Lula hauled herself up from the couch and wobbled sideways, banging her hip on the desk and knocking the filing trays to the floor with a clatter. They realized that they were in no fit state to drive to the mall.

"Shouldn't drive, not really," Stephanie said.

"But I wanna go shopping," Lula objected. "it's part of my human rights. I have a right to shop."

"Taxi!" Connie announced, and waved the phone book around in unsteady circles. She called a local taxi firm and ordered the taxi, trying not to slur, then came round to the couch and flopped down on it. "On their way. Problem solved."

Lula's copy of Cosmo was still open on the seat next to her, and her eye was drawn to the article on the open page. "Good God! Is that even possible?"

Lula and Stephanie both looked at the page in question.

Lula snorted. "Possible, yes. Comfortable, no. All the blood runs to your head and you get a headache for a couple of hours. And your neck hurts after a while too. Women ain't built to put all their weight on their neck for so long. I still get a crick in my neck in cold weather after having to do that once too often."

"Oh, I don't know, depends on if the guy's strong enough to hold you up properly, then it's good," Stephanie said with the lack of guile that comes with several glasses of wine.

"You done that? Damn, girl! Officer Hottie's more creative than I gave him credit for. Stronger, too."

Stephanie looked furtive for a moment, then fixed on Connie. "Connie, I can't believe you're shocked by something in Cosmo. You've seriously never done anything like that?"

"Is there anything that I can say that would stop you asking?"

"Nope. Spill it," Stephanie said firmly, and Lula nodded behind her.

"Okay, fine. No. Never. I'm a sheltered princess. My family would be happier if I didn't work at all; it took them years to settle down to the idea of me working for Vinnie. As far as this goes?" Connie waved the magazine, "No man I've ever dated would have dared even suggest something like that."

"Damn. You been missin' out," Lula commented.

"Yeah, but at least my neck still works. Now can we move on?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Okay, new subject. Hal."

"No! No no, no no no! Different subject."

Stephanie grinned and raised a hand for Lula to high-five. "We're ready to talk about it whenever you are."

A car horn honked outside the bonds office and Connie breathed a sigh of relief. "Taxi's here. Let's go."

She grabbed her jacket and purse and headed for the door as fast as she could before they could continue the interrogation.

o0o0o0o0o

As soon as the taxi was underway, Stephanie and Lula started planning their shopping trip like a military campaign.

Connie was starting to quail at the thought trying more clothes on. "Maybe this is a bad idea. I should go back."

"No excuses, girl, you're going. It's time we found you another dress anyway," Lula said.

"No more spandex! I might not have to do any more distractions anyway."

"How about a date dress?" Stephanie asked.

"But I don't have a date."

"You might soon, though."

Connie gave her a sharp look, and Stephanie schooled her face to RangeMan blankness. "Just buy a dress to celebrate, then. Something to make you feel good."

"All right, I'll look."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was standing behind Lula and Stephanie, watching them rifle through a rail of dresses with practiced speed, when the hairs at the back of her neck prickled. She felt as if someone was watching her. She looked around the store curiously, not quite sure if she was imagining it.

It was the middle of the week, so the store wasn't particularly crowded. There were two middle aged women quietly debating the merits of a navy pantsuit in the next aisle. Near the entrance a young mother was trying to break her toddler's death grip on the hem of a floral dress that he had grabbed on the way past and was determined to keep. A bored looking husband sat on a chair in a corner waiting for his wife to hold out her next choice for his opinion. A few other customers of various descriptions were scattered around, all engaged in the business of looking, touching, choosing. A bored store clerk stood behind the counter, chewing gum and examining her manicure. No-one was paying any attention to her.

She turned away from Stephanie and Lula to take a better look around the store, taking in the entrance and the wide walkway that led to menswear. There she caught sight of a large red-headed figure with his back to her, sauntering away. She felt a flare of alarm but tamped it down quickly. It could have been anyone; she was just jumping at shadows.

She shook her head and turned back to Stephanie and Lula.

Lula had found another one of her scraps of spandex, this time in a lime green color that would trigger a migraine in anyone within three feet of it.

Stephanie was shaking her head vehemently. "Lula, lime just doesn't work with my coloring, it washes me out. You know you can carry off the strong colors so much better than me."

Connie smothered a grin. Effective use of tact and compliment, maybe 5.8 for style, 5.6 for execution.

Lula turned to her instead.

Connie held her hands up and shook her head violently in turn. "No. Remember, we agreed no more spandex."

Lula sighed. "I'm wastin' my time. You two are just never gonna have my sense of style, are you?"

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie and Lula finally managed to tag-team Connie into another purchase. This time she did a better job of sticking to her guns and ended up with a dark green, bias-cut dress that skimmed over her curves and a cream cardigan to cover her shoulders.

"I like the green," Stephanie said. "It suits you." Then she continued in a stage whisper to Lula, "Hal likes green too."

Connie glared at her. "Do I have to shoot you to make you drop this?"

"I was just saying. Jeez, no need to get cranky." This time Stephanie held her hand out behind her back for a low-five from Lula.

Connie ground her teeth together. "Where next?"

"Shoes!" Lula announced. "You need shoes."

"But I have shoes."

"Bite your tongue, girlfriend. You can never have enough shoes," Lula said. "Now let's see what we can find you."

Stephanie and Lula dragged her to the nearest shoe store and the process started all over again.

o0o0o0o0o

While waiting for a pair of beaded sandals to be brought out to her, Connie got the prickling feeling again and craned her neck to look around the shoe store. This time Stephanie and Lula noticed her reaction.

"What gives, girl?" asked Lula.

"Don't know, probably nothing. I've just got this feeling like we're being watched. Oh hell, ignore me, I'm being stupid."

"Forget it? No chance. If something feels wrong, it probably is. This kind of thing has happened enough times to me that I always listen to my intuition," Stephanie said. "Lula, Ranger's in the wind. You want to do the honors?"

"On it." Lula was already dialing. "Tank, baby, what you doin'?.. I'm shopping with the girls… You know it… Course I will. Listen, serious question, you got anyone on Steph today?.. Connie got the creeps like we're being watched at the mall… No, we ain't seen nothin'... Of course I do, never leave home without it… Will do. Love you, baby… Bye."

She put her cell away. "He says if there is someone, it ain't RangeMan and to keep our eyes peeled and weapons handy. We should call him if we see anything suspicious and he'll send someone. One of the guys from RangeMan will come get us when we're ready to go anyway."

"He's not sending anyone now?" Stephanie asked.

"Nah. He says as long as we're armed he'd bet on the three of us against anyone he could think of, just be careful."

"I think I love your man."

"Back off, sister. He's all mine," Lula said good-naturedly.

o0o0o0o0o

After shoes, the girls were determined that there should be lingerie, and they hustled Connie into Victoria's Secret and started rifling through the racks again.

Lula took a set down and waved the hanger in her face. "How 'bout this? Leopard print. You can't go wrong with animal print, plus it's easy care nylon, and check out the black frills. Take it from me, this is cool lingerie. You should buy this."

Connie opened her mouth and tried to speak several times. It made her look like a goldfish.

Finally Stephanie took pity on her. She gently took the set out of Lula's hands and hung it back on the rack. "I think maybe she needs time to work up to animal print. Why don't we look for something that will work with the green dress instead?"

Lula looked disappointed. "But animal print works with everything. That's the whole point."

"Yeah, but you've had time to develop your sense of style. Think baby steps."

"Huh, guess she'll be too chicken for the peephole stuff too, then."

Stephanie's hand shot out and snagged the neck of Connie's jacket on the way past as she tried to bolt for the exit. "I think that probably counts as a yes."

Once she was sure that Connie's fight or flight instincts were back under control, Stephanie suggested a black lace set. Connie looked at it doubtfully. "I think that that might be the wrong size."

"What?"

"Well look at it. Where's the rest of it?"

"Boy, when you said that you were sheltered you weren't kidding, were you?"

"Hey! I haven't been living in a cave and I've bought underwear before. It's just that there isn't enough material there for my size. Check the label."

"Connie, trust me, it is your size, and this is what it is supposed to look like."

"But there's no support! I'll fall out of that bra. You're shopping for you, and you're a different shape to me. People like you can wear underwear just for decoration. I defy you to find a fuller figured woman who would actually wear that."

Stephanie looked meaningfully over her shoulder to where Lula was holding a raspberry colored lace thong up against the front of her clothes.

"Apart from her," Connie added quickly.

Stephanie looked at her and started to giggle. Connie struggled to maintain a straight face for a few moments then her shoulders started to shake. Eventually she lost control and started to laugh too. "Stop it. I really mean it. Even if you are making me laugh, this dental floss is not going to work for me. Buy it for Ranger and let me choose something else."

Stephanie's face shut down and the mood changed immediately.

Connie winced. "Oh, God, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply… Look, I'm sorry. Whatever is between the two of you is way beyond me. Can we go back to where we were ten seconds ago?"

"Sure."

But they didn't, not really.

o0o0o0o0o

Finally they found some lingerie that the three of them could agree on. It was a simple green satin set in the same shade as the dress, and the bra straps could be removed to avoid showing under the spaghetti straps. Stephanie and Lula escorted her to the fitting rooms to try it, where the next problem became apparent.

"Aaah, guys?" Connie's voice came through the cubicle door. "Now might be the time to confess that I've never had a bikini wax."

"Big problem?" Stephanie asked.

"Depends on your definition of big."

"Just open the door," Lula said.

Connie opened the door slowly.

"Damn. Maybe we should just buy a hedge-_ooof_," Lula said as Stephanie's elbow connected with her ribs.

"It's not a problem. There's a beautician down the end on the top floor. The set is gorgeous. Let's pay for it and get out of here."

o0o0o0o0o

The beautician was able to fit in a bikini wax in the next fifteen minutes and Stephanie and Lula concentrated on book ending Connie so that she couldn't change her mind.

She held a magazine open in shaking hands without reading a word of it. "If I'd known that this would be my reward for catching Picket I'd have let him go. This isn't an all the way thing, is it? 'Cause I don't want to be bald. What do you say so they know you don't mean bald? And do I have to take my panties off? Because I'm really not sure about taking my panties off in front of a stranger. In fact, I'm not sure about this at all. I don't even have a date or a reason to wear the underwear. I could just take it back, and no-one would know any different. I think I've changed my mind."

"_We_ would know," Lula said. "Now stop being such a chicken-shit. Women do this all the time. Look, she's ready for you. Get your hairy Italian ass in there, and we'll be waiting for you out here when you're done."

She gave Connie a little shove towards the beautician and Connie started taking slow, condemned woman style steps towards her appointment with the waxer.

Stephanie and Lula picked up some more magazines and settled down to wait. A couple of minutes later they heard a shriek of "Jesus CHRIST!" from the back room.

"Do you think maybe we should have taken her gun from her first?" Stephanie asked Lula.

"Too late now."

o0o0o0o0o

After the beautician they made their way to a café for cappuccinos while they waited for their ride. Stephanie and Lula were steadfastly ignoring the glares that Connie was shooting in their direction.

Lula eased her shoes off and wiggled her toes under the table. "Good trip, I'm beat. You got any more hinky feelings, Connie?"

"No. I was probably imagining it all anyway. The only feeling I have now is the one that I've been sandpapered between my legs, for which I hold you two personally responsible."

Their waitress arrived and Lula and Connie gaped as Stephanie ordered whole wheat toast to go with her coffee.

"What?" she asked.

"I just don't believe what I'm hearin'," Lula said.

"It's just toast. Get over it."

"No, it's healthy toast. I ain't never seen you eat healthy food since we met, so yeah, shoot me, I wanna know what's goin' on."

"Ranger makes me eat it for breakfast, and I've kind of gotten used to it, that's all."

"Hold it. Back up. _Ranger_ sees you at _breakfast_? You been holdin' out on us," accused Lula.

"Get your mind out of the gutter. He visits in the mornings and we eat breakfast. We're friends. At least I thought we were until he took off like a bat out of hell without saying anything to me."

"Yeah, well, that's the wizard for you. He'll be back. Always does."

"And at least I get a few days to relax," Connie added.

"Yeah. It's just…" Stephanie trailed off.

"Just what?" Connie prompted.

"It feels like he bailed."

"Bailed out of what? Were you together?"

"No, and I never said it made sense. That's just how it feels. Something's changed and I don't know what."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie tried to settle back into her usual routine back at the bonds office while Ranger was away, but she still started every time the bell over the door went, and she spent a lot of time looking out of the window waiting for something to happen. Waiting for anything to happen. The boredom and the unfulfilled anticipation gradually closed in on her until she felt like she was trying to breathe through shrink wrap.

Stephanie came in most days to pick up the RangeMan files, but she hadn't heard anything either, and Tank was a master at evading questions from Lula. They all just waited in their holding pattern, and Connie seemed to live the same day over and over again until she wanted to scream.

"I've tried!" Lula protested when Connie grilled her for the fifth time. "I've tried everything I know. I've even waited until he's about to come and threatened to stop, but nothin' worked. Either he don't know or he just plain ain't tellin'. You're just gonna have to wait."

So Connie waited and watched helplessly as Stephanie grew quieter and quieter with each day that crawled past until she was like a curly haired shadow in the bonds office that only spoke when she had to.

On the sixth day after the shopping trip, Tank caught Stephanie at RangeMan as she was about to leave for the bonds office. "Steph, bring Connie back with you when you pick up the files."

She looked up at him hopefully. "Is Ranger back?"

"He wants to see both of you in his office at 11."

"We'll be there."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie followed Stephanie and Tank into Ranger's fifth floor office at 11 o'clock with her heart knocking and her hands shaking. Ranger wasn't there yet. Stephanie threw herself onto the couch under the window without being asked, so Connie assumed that it would be okay to join her. She perched on the edge, though, and was ready to jump up if she had to. For that matter, she was ready to bolt if she had to. Tank leaned against the opposite wall with his arms folded.

Five minutes later Ranger walked in. He headed straight to his desk without acknowledging the other occupants of the room and took two envelopes from the top. He handed them to the two women then sat down behind his desk and faced them.

"You're both needed for the next job." His tone was businesslike. "We need to get a team into a club in Newark called Babylon this Saturday night. Details are in the envelope. The management isn't friendly to RangeMan and we won't be able to pre-arrange entry the way we normally would. We'll need to move under the radar and the team is less likely to arouse suspicion if they have women with them. Your job is simply to accompany the team into the premises, and once they are in, to help them look like normal customers. You probably won't be able to get weapons past their doormen so don't bother carrying them. Do _not_ get involved in the operation. You keep the keys to one of the vehicles and if the operation goes bad you two just leave like ordinary customers and make your way back here. Any questions?"

"Who are the rest of the team?" Stephanie asked.

"Lester, Bobby, Manny and Zero."

"You're not coming with us?"

"I'm too well known to the management, and so is Tank. You need to be below radar on this one."

"What about Hal?"

"Wouldn't blend as well as the team members that I've selected."

"That's all I had." Stephanie turned to Connie. "You got any questions?"

Connie shook her head mutely.

"Then we're done," Ranger said.

Stephanie and Connie both got up, and Tank accompanied them to the door. When they got there, Stephanie exchanged a speaking glance with Tank and he nodded fractionally then put a hand to Connie's back and escorted her out to the control room.

Stephanie lingered in the doorway of Ranger's office.

"Did you need something else, Babe?" he asked.

"Maybe. I thought…" She shrugged. "I don't know. Forget it, it's not important." She left and closed the door behind her.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie and Stephanie met up at Connie's house on the night of the Babylon job to get ready together.

"It makes me feel about eighteen, getting ready with a girlfriend before going out," Connie said. "Now help me choose what to wear, because it's been a while since I've been to a nightclub and I have no idea what people wear in these places any more."

Stephanie looked through her closet. "Generally not much, but since we don't have to lure anyone out, the pressure's off a little."

She picked out a pair of black palazzo pants in a soft fabric which rippled with movement and a sleeveless silver top with a plunging neckline. "Show me these on."

She nodded approvingly when Connie emerged from the bathroom. "That works."

Connie looked enviously at Stephanie's halter top and short skirt. "I wish I could wear things like that, but I'd just give myself two black eyes and want to hide in a corner all night."

"Hey, I spent the whole of my twenties wishing for bigger boobs. There has to be some compensation."

o0o0o0o0o

They arrived at RangeMan in plenty of time for their scheduled departure, and there was a ripple of applause and a wolf whistle in the control room when they walked in.

"Bombshell! Gorgeous as always," Lester called. "Let's see you properly." He caught her hand and spun her around in a graceful twirl.

"Hey guys." Stephanie answered. "Bobby, Manny, I don't think you've met Connie yet, have you."

"Nope, but I've been waiting to," Manny said cheerfully. "Connie, Hector told me all about you. It is a pleasure to be working with you. Just promise you'll warn me if I'm pissing you off, before you think about the shoes, okay?"

"Promise," she smiled. "Anyway, no toe-killers on tonight."

Bobby extended a hand to her to shake. "Bobby. Good to meet you."

"Likewise." She shook it.

Zero gave her a grin and a wave from behind Bobby. "Hey. Good to see you again."

"Right, shall we get this show on the road?" Lester asked.

"Hang on," Stephanie said. "I want to check in with Ranger before we head out."

Lester looked slightly uncomfortable. "He's not here, sweetheart. He gave us our final orders this afternoon and told us to get on with it."

He didn't miss her quickly hidden look of disappointment and grabbed her by the waist to lift her up and swing her around. "Just come with us and have fun, huh? No hard work tonight, you just get to have fun and look as beautiful as always."

Stephanie summoned a smile. "How could I not when I'm surrounded by my favorite guys? Let's go."

o0o0o0o0o

As they got near the front of the line to enter the club Lester put his arm around Stephanie and pulled her into him and Manny grabbed Connie's hand and held on to it. The doormen barely looked at them, seeing a mixed group of party goers, and waved the group through the doors after a cursory pat-down of the men.

They walked up the stairs in a group and stopped in the lobby at the top, before going through the doors to the main part of the club. Lester quietly outlined the plan of events for the benefit of the two women. "Bombshell, I want you to come with me for a quick walk around to see what we can see. Manny, you and Connie do the same. If we attract any attention we act like we're looking for a private spot to make out. We meet back at the bar afterwards. When we know the lie of the land, you girls are off the hook, just enjoy the rest of your evening. We do what we have to do, then we'll find you when we're ready to leave. You have the keys to one of the cars, right?"

Stephanie pulled out the keys from her pocket to show him.

"Good. If you see any sign of disturbance, or if we haven't found you by one, you two get out of here without attracting attention and make your way back to RangeMan. You both got phones?"

They nodded.

"If you have an emergency, call the control room, they can reach us silently without attracting unwanted attention. Now, let's make a start."

He took Stephanie's hand and opened the doors to the club. A wall of sound enveloped them and they moved into the hot, sweaty atmosphere of the club.

o0o0o0o0o

Manny and Connie made their way around the club together, holding hands the whole time in case they needed a reason why they were skulking around the private areas. They noted the position of the exits, the staff only areas and the location of the security staff.

They only got noticed once by the staff, when a bouncer spotted them in a private corridor leading to the kitchens. Manny pulled Connie to him and pressed her into the wall, nuzzling her neck as he whispered, "Show time." She wrapped her free arm around the back of his neck and made a show of closing her eyes and running her fingers up through his hair.

"Hey. You two. Take it outside," the bouncer said.

"Sorry man, we're leaving," Manny answered, and they went back out to the main room of the club.

Once they were back in the anonymous surroundings of the crowd he leaned over and said over the pounding music, "Good job. We got enough, I think. Let's get back and meet the others."

They met Bobby and Zero at the bar, where they were joined by Lester and Stephanie five minutes later. The men conferred briefly, and Lester let the women go.

"That was good work. We have enough to do the next phase of the job, so you two are off the hook as of now. Have a good time, stay aware of what's going on and head out if we don't find you or call you by one o'clock."

They gradually drifted off one by one until Stephanie and Connie were alone five minutes later.

Stephanie shrugged. "I guess we may as well dance."

"Another thing I haven't done in a very long time."

"Just relax, it's easy."

They made their way out to the middle of the dance floor where they would be well clear of whatever the guys were up to. As far as Connie was concerned, the fact that no-one to the sides would be able to see her inept dancing was a huge side-benefit. She tried to relax and pick up the pounding beat, and not worry too much about losing her hearing.

o0o0o0o0o

About ten minutes later she was starting to relax and worry less about what she looked like. She could feel the bass thump in her chest, which she suspected might not be a good thing for her health in the long run, but it made it easy to feel the music and keep the rhythm. The dance floor was crowded, and she felt safely anonymous in the middle of it.

She noticed that Stephanie was constantly shifting and moving as she danced to face various parts of the club, staying aware of her surroundings and watching discreetly for any activity from the Rangemen. She was clearly more than just a mascot for RangeMan, even if she did seem to spend a lot of time being picked up and swung around by various members of Ranger's private army.

Suddenly Stephanie moved in close and put her hands on Connie's hips, moving them both to the outskirts of the dance floor while continuing to dance. She pushed her hips up close and started to bump and grind, pressing her breasts in close to Connie's own. At the same time she pressed her lips close to Connie's ear.

"It's on," she murmured. "We're going to help them. No time to explain, just keep dancing and don't panic about anything I do."

"What?"

But Stephanie had already turned and was shimmying for all that she was worth, grinding her ass against Connie and sliding down her body until her knees were wide apart and her ass almost brushed the floor. Then she reversed direction and slowly slid back up in the opposite direction until she was upright again. Still moving sinuously to the beat of the music, she spun around and slung her hand over Connie's shoulder then pressed their breasts and their lips together, grinding their hips in full view of the crowded dance floor and the people standing around it.

When Stephanie broke the kiss and Connie could see her surroundings again, she thought she might pass out faced with the hungry expressions on the faces of the men around them. A few women were looking at them with curiosity. More were trying not to see them and were conspicuously facing in the other direction.

She looked out and away from the crowd around her, desperate for somewhere to look where she couldn't see anyone staring at them. Then she noticed Bobby easing out of a door marked 'private' in the corner of the room. Stephanie spun around again to do one of her slow hip glides to the floor and saw him too, and Connie felt her relax as she made her descent. This time when she came up again and turned, Stephanie didn't press in close. Instead she moved away slightly and started to dance normally again. When the track ended she stopped altogether.

"I need a drink. Let's get back to where we were earlier with the boys."

"What the hell was that?" asked Connie.

"That was distracting every security guard in the room from what the boys were up to. Think it worked?"

Stephanie led the way from the dance floor and made her way through the crowd towards the bar, leaving Connie standing open-mouthed behind her on the dance floor.

Stephanie was almost out of sight before Connie gathered her wits together and started to follow her. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on Stephanie's departing back when something large interposed itself between them.

She looked up and her heart jumped into her mouth as she recognized the red-headed man from the Ship. He gave her a lascivious grin and dropped an enormous paw onto her shoulder, digging his fingers painfully into her flesh.

"Nice show, little one. I told you I'd find you, but I didn't think I'd find you doing something so _interesting_. It's a shame your little friend is off limits. What the three of us could do together. Still, never mind, you and I, we'll have fun on our own, yes?"

She looked around frantically for Stephanie or one of the Rangemen, but she couldn't see anyone she knew. The people around her were moving away, sliding their eyes over her and away, not wanting to see her, not wanting to be involved.

The red-haired giant squeezed his fingers tighter until she felt the bones in her shoulder grind together. He moved her in front of him and pressed the fingers of his other hand around the side of her neck, then he started to propel her towards one the private areas of the club. The pain was overwhelming, and her vision was starting to blur around the edges.

Suddenly there was a flurry of activity around the edges of her vision. She couldn't move her head at all, so she couldn't see clearly what was going on, but the punishing grip was released and then Stephanie was in front of her taking her hand and walking her quickly towards the exit. She was saying something, but it sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel, and Connie couldn't quite make sense of it. She stumbled down the stairs on rubber legs, then they were in the fresh air and Stephanie was trying to make her run. She tried but her legs wouldn't carry her properly.

She almost screamed as strong hands took both her arms, but then her weight was lifted on each side until her feet barely touched the ground and they were moving at an accelerated walk towards the cars. When she was thrown into the back seat of one of the cars she recognized Manny and Zero. They slammed the door as Stephanie jumped into the driver's seat and pulled the car out with a screech of tires.

After a few minutes of hard driving, Stephanie slowed down to a more sedate pace. Without taking her eyes off the road she spoke to Connie in the back seat. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. What happened?"

"When I saw that you weren't behind me any more I started looking for you and saw that gorilla dragging you away. The boys were coming to get us and joined me. They took him out and told me to get you the hell out of there and they'd catch up. They're behind us in the other cars now."

"Who was he?" Connie asked.

"I don't know, but I think they do. I guess we'll find out when we get back to base."

o0o0o0o0o

Back at RangeMan, Bobby checked out Connie's shoulder and pronounced it 'just bruised'.

"Who was that?" Stephanie asked Lester.

"His name is Gerard, and he's nobody you want to run into. He's the brother of a local drug runner and he's a real sick fuck. Ranger's gonna need to know about this in the morning. Manny will take her home tonight and make sure she's okay, then we'll debrief first thing tomorrow."

"Did the job go okay?"

"Without a hitch, thanks to you. If you ever decide to take that on stage you could make a lot of money. Just warn me next time. It's real hard trying to make your escape with a hard-on so big it's blocking your view."

o0o0o0o0o

Manny took Connie home and checked her house out before leaving. He left her a priority number for the control room. "There's someone there twenty four seven. Call if you need anything, okay?"

After the door had closed she went upstairs and showered some of the tension out of her muscles Putting on her robe, she went downstairs to sit numbly in her living room.

She noticed a silver car parked across the street with someone sitting in the driver's seat. She fished her gun out of her purse and stood to the side of the window for a few minutes, watching the car and wondering what to do next.

In this neighborhood most people knew each other's cars and she didn't know this one. For all she knew it could be someone waiting for a friend to come home, but she didn't know for sure, and after the night's events she was nervous. She tried to keep calm and waited for a chance to see inside the car, fingering the safety of the gun the whole time.

Finally the lights from a passing car illuminated the face inside the car.

She shook her head and pocketed her gun. Wrapping her robe tightly around herself against the cold night air, she walked out to the car. She pulled the driver's door open and looked in at Hal with a soft smile.

"Idiot. My next door neighbor would have called the cops in another couple of minutes."

He looked sheepish. "I just wanted to be sure you were okay."

"I am now." She took his hand and pulled him out of the car, taking the keys out of the ignition with the other hand. She led him into the house, pointing the remote behind her to lock the car without looking back. Once inside she walked straight through the house without stopping or letting go of his hand and started to climb the stairs.

Hal suddenly looked desperately torn. "Connie, this isn't right. You've had a rough night. I just came by in case you needed help."

She kept climbing the stairs. "So help."

"I'd be taking advantage of you."

She kept climbing a step or two ahead of him until she reached the top of the stairs, then she stopped on the landing and turned to face him. "No, you wouldn't. If Ranger's deal is the cloud, you're the silver lining, and you make me glad that I made it. Please. Stay?"

He sighed and looked up at her. "Have I managed to say no to you about anything yet?"

"Never. It's one of your best qualities." She ran her fingers over his buzz cut hair and smiled. "I wanted to do that while I could reach. Wanted to know what it felt like."

"So what does it feel like?"

"Soft. And nappy, like velvet. I want to do this while I can reach, too." She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

He caught the back of her head gently and pulled her to him, lengthening and deepening the kiss. When they finally broke apart to breathe he pressed his forehead to hers. "You sure about this?"

"Positive," she whispered, and took his hand to continue leading him to her bedroom.

She let go of his hand once they were in the bedroom and turned away to switch her bedside light on. A soft amber light flooded the room. She turned back to face him, stood on tiptoe and grabbed a fistful of his tee-shirt to pull him down for another kiss. He wrapped his enormous arms around her and pulled her into his embrace.

She hissed with pain and flinched a little.

He let her go immediately. "What's the matter? What did I do?"

"Nothing, it's fine."

He touched the belt of her robe. "May I?"

She nodded silently.

Hal open the tie of her robe and gently eased it off her shoulders to reveal a set of livid finger marks on one of her shoulders. There were more on her neck. He traced them gently with a finger. "Anyone looked at these?"

"Bobby. He said it's just bruised."

He nodded. "You got anything for it?"

"Arnica cream. Steph gave me some. It's in the bathroom cabinet."

He went out to the bathroom and came back a couple of minutes later uncapping the tube. "Sit down on the bed."

He sat on the bed next to her and started smoothing the herbal cream over the angry marks. It was a gentle touch, seemingly out of place in a man his size, and it was meant to soothe and heal. Instead it sent little trails of fire across her skin, and she caught her breath and shivered.

"All done," he murmured after a while.

"Don't stop."

"Never, if you don't want me to."

"I don't."

He leaned forward and kissed her, then slipped the robe the rest of the way off her shoulders and lowered her down gently to lie on the bed. He continued to softly stroke her shoulders and neck, expanding the movement to take in her throat and collarbones. After a while he nudged the robe out of the way and added in gentle circles around the fullness of her breasts, then her belly.

He looked down at her with an expression of wonder as he traced elaborate circular patterns over her torso, occasionally moving out to run his fingers down her arms before moving back to her breasts and belly. "You're so soft."

"That's because I'm fat."

"You're not fat. You're perfect." He hesitated. "Connie, I don't… I'm not very…"

She reached up and pressed a finger to his lips. "Shh. Me neither. It'll be fine. Now come here," and she sat up and tugged the hem of his tee-shirt upwards, helping him to pull it over his head before tugging at the waist of his pants in the same way. Between them they stripped off his clothes and he lay on his side facing her.

She reached out shyly and started her own series of strokes across his broad chest, exploring his pectoral muscles and moving out to trace sweeping circles across the width of his shoulders and press gently against his bicep.

She chuckled softly under her breath.

"What?" he asked.

"I remember when I was a teenager, the boys would make a big deal out of the muscles in their arms. They'd curl their arms like Popeye and tell you to feel how hard their biceps were, only if you did the muscles were always soft under your fingers. You're just lying here, and look." She pressed down again. "Doesn't move. It's like you have rocks under there, or iron."

"Don't mock too much, woman. I was one of those boys once."

She turned on to her side to face him with her head propped up on one hand, and smiled. "You? Oh, come on. I can't believe you were ever skinny."

"Well maybe not skinny, but I remember flexing in front of the mirror, wondering if I'd ever have enough muscles to impress the girls at school."

She reached out again to start tracing soft patterns over his torso with one finger, outlining the ridges of his abdomen. "So when did these arrive?"

"Army."

She moved her fingers across to trace a lumpy scar along his side. "Is that where you got this?"

He snorted. "Training accident trying to get under some barbed wire. I never was the best at the commando stuff. Got out as soon as I could. I'm better at security."

"Keeping us all safe."

"Especially you."

"You always make me feel safe."

"Good." And he reached out and pulled her to him, more carefully this time.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, threw her leg over his hip and kissed him deeply.

He started the gentle, hypnotic stroking motions again, this time tracing circles and spirals across her back and gradually moving down to her hips and ass. When he traced the crease of her ass she sighed and her hips started to undulate of their own accord. He took that as a good sign and tentatively slipped a finger to her center. She whimpered.

His body tensed and he stopped. "You okay?"

"Oh yeah."

He relaxed and continued, starting to move more confidently as she responded with gentle sighs and soft moans.

Finally she rolled on to her back and tugged on his shoulder to bring him over on top of her.

"I don't want to hurt your shoulder," he murmured.

"It'll be fine. I trust you."

He nodded and closed his eyes as he gently eased into her, taking care to keep his weight off her injured shoulder.

It had been a long time, and Connie gasped with shock at the sensation of being filled.

"I'm hurting you. We should stop," he said reluctantly.

"Stop now and I swear to God I'll shoot you," she groaned.

His shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. "Whatever my lady wishes," and he started to move against her.

She pressed her head back into the pillows and closed her eyes, letting the sensations wash over her. Before long, his movements grew stronger and more forceful and she took his left hand in her right and pressed their fingers together at her center. Heat shot through her pelvis with the added sensation and then she was there ahead of him and falling over the edge. She writhed and cried out as she climaxed underneath him and he followed her over, hard.

They lay together for a moment just breathing as they slowly came down from their release. Finally Hal rolled away on to his back and Connie snuggled into his side. They fell asleep in a tangle of sheets and limbs, the amber light still on, casting a soft glow over the room.

o0o0o0o0o

After calling Hal to let him know about Connie, Stephanie sat silently in the RangeMan control room for a while, just watching the team on the monitors work while she fidgeted with her car keys. The building was silent. The only sound in the control room was the soft whirr of the computers and a distant hum from the refrigerator in the break room.

Finally she got to her feet and kicked her shoes off under the desk where she sometimes sat to do searches. She padded over to the stairs barefoot and made her way up to the seventh floor apartment.

She let herself into the apartment to find it silent and empty. Somehow she wasn't surprised. She went back out and walked quietly down the stairs back to the fifth floor. The two men on monitor duty nodded to her but didn't speak.

She found Ranger asleep slumped on the couch in his office. His head was leaning back, his eyes were closed and he had one arm draped along the back of the couch. He didn't wake as she came in.

She crept across the room and lay down on the couch with her head in his lap. He didn't open his eyes, but a slight tension in his leg muscles told her that he was awake.

"Don't hide from me," she whispered. "I'll find you. We're bounty hunters; that's what we do."

A hand stroked through her curls and then dropped to her shoulder and rested there. She dozed off under the gentle weight and slept.

When she woke in the morning he was gone and a fleece blanket had been tucked around her where she lay on the couch.


	8. Trial no 7

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.7

_When she woke in the morning he was gone and a fleece blanket had been tucked in around her where she lay on the couch._

Felton Ramsay was sitting alone at his breakfast table when Ranger walked silently through the patio doors from the grounds. Ranger was wearing street thug attire of a sleeveless black tee-shirt and black jeans and he radiated menace.

Ramsay peered out into the early morning mist hanging over the ground outside. "Did you even see any of my guards on your way in?"

Ranger just looked at him.

"Of course, ever the man of mystery. Well, since you are here, can I offer you something to eat? I believe the cook even has some green eggs set aside for special occasions."

The temperature in the room suddenly plummeted and Ramsay didn't think that it had anything to do with the doors to the grounds having been opened.

"You need to deal with your animal. Gerard showed an unhealthy interest in one of my people last tonight. If he continues it will be very bad for his health. Put him back on his leash. Now."

Ramsay raised his eyebrows. "I think you've been misinformed. As far as I know my brother's tastes run strictly to the female persuasion, and he knows better than to take an interest in the charming Miss Plum."

"I'm referring to Miss Rosolli."

"Rosolli?" He laughed. "Your little biographer. What's your interest in her, other than the obvious? Everyone knows that she's paying for her mistake. And once she's finished paying, well why would you care?"

"She's mine."

"She's a very minor Rosolli. Leave her to her family. You don't want to be involved in this."

"You hurt her and when her family comes looking for you, all they'll find is the damp smear on the ground that I left behind."

"So, are you adopting every little girl who comes looking for a few thrills these days, 'Hot Cuban Man'? Maybe she's back up for when Miss Plum is unavailable, or is sucking your cock part of her payback."

Before he realized what had happened, Ranger had him flattened face against the wall with an arm twisted painfully behind his back. He could feel the point of a knife grazing the skin above his left kidney.

"Perhaps you missed what I just said," Ranger murmured in his ear. "She's mine, and that means you respect her like you respect me, if you want to keep your fucking head on your shoulders. You don't need to know anything about her, except that she's mine. And you can spread the word. No-one touches Connie Rosolli. Ever."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie got up from Ranger's office couch and went out into the control room, dragging her fingers through her hair as she walked and trying to reduce the evidence that she had slept in her clothes last night. She could feel her hair springing in all directions, and the chances were good that she had a bad case of panda eyes to go with it. She retrieved her shoes from under the desk then slunk towards the elevator carrying them in her hand, hoping that she could make her getaway without being noticed.

As she neared the elevator Tank stepped out of his office.

"Where you going, Steph?"

She pointed ruefully to her hair. "Home, before I start scaring small children."

"Use the apartment. You have stuff here."

"I'd rather go home."

"Orders are that you stay in the building."

She bridled. "You don't get to keep me here against my will just because of my job. I'm out of here."

"You need to stay, Bombshell. It's important."

"So tell me why, and I'll think about it."

"Just wait here until Ranger can explain."

"No. I'm done waiting for Ranger. I'm gone." She tried to shove past him to get to the elevator, but he folded his arms and didn't move, brushing her efforts off like they weren't there.

She turned away and marched towards the stairs instead. She barreled through the fire door to the stairwell without looking and bounced off of a solid black object that blocked her path.

A familiar hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her progress before she could recover her wits sufficiently to get around him.

"Damn it, Ranger, let me go!"

"No." He dragged her back through the fire door and over to the elevator, which took them up to the seventh floor. When they were both inside the apartment he closed the door and leaned back against it with his arms folded.

Stephanie paced angrily in front of him. "You'd better have a good explanation for this."

"The best."

"Which is?"

"Something kicked off on the job last night. You and Connie drew some unwanted attention. Until I know whether I've managed to shut the situation down, the two of you stay close to home."

"So I'm under house arrest until Wacko of the Week makes a decision?"

"If you knew him you wouldn't be arguing with me."

"It's the red haired guy, isn't it?" she asked.

He nodded once. "Lester called me first thing this morning. My name protects you from a lot of things, but I'm not willing to gamble your life on this one. He's too unpredictable."

"So suddenly I'm important to you again?"

"You're always important."

"Yeah? Well sometimes you have a strange way of showing it."

"Don't ever doubt it."

Stephanie visibly sagged and walked round to the living room to slump onto the couch. "If I have to stay in this building I'm going to go crazy."

Ranger followed her round and sat next to her. "You can go out. Just not without a guard."

"Again." Her voice was bitter.

"It can't be helped if this is the life you choose. I can only protect you so far. You could just marry some boy from the Burg and pop out kids for the next ten years if you prefer. Then you won't need me or a guard."

She didn't respond to that comment. "What do we do about Connie? She was the one that got grabbed."

"Same thing. She gets a guard, she just won't know about hers. If I can manipulate her deal to bring her into the building I'll do that too."

"Even with a crazy on the loose you're keeping her to the deal?"

"It's the best way I have to control her actions while she's at risk."

"Don't you ever get tired of controlling everything?" she asked.

It was his turn not to answer.

o0o0o0o0o

The shrill sound of a cell-phone ringing and Hal uncurling from around her woke Connie from a long, contented sleep. The bed shifted with his weight as he got up and searched for his pants on the floor. Finally he got to the ringing phone in one of the pockets and answered it, pinning the phone the phone between his shoulder and his ear so that he could pull his pants on at the same time. "Yeah?"

She drowsed comfortably, listening to his voice moving away as he walked out into the hall speaking to whoever was on the other end of the phone.

His voice faded down the stairs until she couldn't hear it any more, and she rolled onto her back in the middle of the bed and stretched luxuriously. She felt a painful twinge in her shoulder and cursed under her breath; it was stiffening up and as sore as hell. Other parts of her were more pleasantly sore, and she smiled to herself at the memory of the night before.

She rolled out of bed and wandered into the bathroom. Showering quickly and efficiently, she pulled on her robe and picked up Hal's discarded tee-shirt before following him downstairs. The smell of fresh coffee drew her into the kitchen, where she found him just ending his call.

"Hey." She padded over to him and handed him his tee-shirt, leaning in for a kiss at the same time. He pulled her into a comfortable hug before letting go to pull the tee-shirt over his head.

"Everything okay?" she asked.

"Not even remotely. That call was about you." He got up and pulled two cups out of the cabinet, filling them with coffee and milk. He passed one to her. "Lester told Ranger about the guy from last night and the shit's hit the fan. You're out of the bonds office until further notice."

"What? That's my job! He can't do that to me!"

"He just did. Vinnie rolled straight over and agreed that you're RangeMan's problem until further notice. Ranger will supply cover for the bonds office while you take a vacation unless he needs you for something."

"That fucking weasel. After everything I've done for him, how _dare_ he! No! Absolutely not. Not acceptable."

"Not negotiable if you still want to work for Vinnie after this is all over. And there's more."

"Go on. It can't get much worse."

"You're under guard as well."

"Oh no! That's so far across the line it's in the next State!"

Hal pulled her back into his front and wrapped his arms around her. "Can I be honest with you?"

"Go on."

"It's not a bad idea. Lester and Bobby know this guy and he's as bad as they come. You won't even see us most of the time; Ranger's instructions are to stay below radar. You aren't supposed to know about it."

"Can you be my protection?"

"Some of the time. Tank set the roster so that I'm first on it. He figured it was the best way to keep you covered without giving me away."

"You guys are the sneakiest bunch I have seen in my life."

"Hey, we learned at the feet of the master."

"Ranger?"

"Who else?"

Since neither of them now had anywhere to go they ate a leisurely breakfast then went back to bed for the rest of the morning.

"After all," Connie said as they climbed the stairs, "I'd be a fool to ignore the side benefits of my body being your official concern right now."

Hal just concentrated on making sure that she didn't bang her head from her position slung over his shoulder as they turned the corner at the top of the stairs.

o0o0o0o0o

Three days later, Connie was dying from boredom. Life as a lady of leisure didn't suit her; that was why she had fought so hard to keep her job at the bonds office in the first place. True to Hal's word, the Rangemen had stayed out of sight for the most part, so in theory she was just on vacation. Unless Hal's shift brought the bodyguard experience up close and personal, she would have missed them if she hadn't known they were there. In practice, she was looking around for them constantly, and she felt like she was living in a goldfish bowl.

o0o0o0o0o

On Saturday afternoon she rang Lula and Stephanie and arranged to go for coffee. They met in a local café and discussed the situation over cakes and cappuccinos while their assigned guards watched from a discreet distance.

"This is driving me absolutely nuts," Connie grumbled to Stephanie. "I thought I was bored at the bonds office; this is worse. This is torture. I am going slowly out of my mind just sitting around doing nothing. How about you?"

"I'm skip tracing like normal, only I have to have someone with me all the time instead of just for the bad ones. Ranger comes with me when he can and Tank comes the rest of the time."

"That's all? So business as usual except for some company while you work?"

"Hey!" interjected Lula. "What was I, chopped liver? She had a partner before, too, you know. Just 'cause I ain't got a dick don't mean I wasn't there doing the job."

"Sorry. That's not what I meant."

"S'all right. I'm just bored too. Your replacement don't like to talk too much and she don't like donuts, I don't get to ride shotgun with Steph any more and my man's busy all the time watching the two of you. This sucks."

"Steph," Connie asked, "do you think I could at least do some proper work for RangeMan. Much as I could strangle Ranger for doing this to me, I'm going to go out of my mind if I don't do something soon."

"I'll ask. I mean, you'll still have protection if you're working, right?"

Something seriously bothered Connie about that statement, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Lula noticed. "You okay, girl?"

"Yeah. I just feel like I've forgotten something."

"Important?"

"Don't know until I think of it."

Lula shrugged. "It'll come back. I could eat more cake. Could anyone else eat more cake? Connie? What's up?"

Connie had just dropped her forehead to the table with a loud thud and was banging it repeatedly, moaning, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

Stephanie reached out and put a hand on Connie's shoulder. "Connie? What's wrong?"

Connie mumbled something unintelligible from her face-down position.

"What did she say?" Stephanie asked Lula.

"Sounded like protection to me."

"Connie? What protection? Is there a problem with the guys?"

Connie looked up with a woebegone expression. "I'll find out in a few days."

"What?"

"I have suddenly never wanted to get my period so much in my life."

Sudden comprehension arrived on Stephanie's and Lula's faces.

"I think we need more cake while you tell us all about it," Lula said. "Starting with who the other dumbass is."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie tackled Ranger at dinner in the seventh floor apartment about Connie doing some more work. "She's going nuts, and it's been nearly a week now. Can't we cut the security back a bit?"

He looked up from his plate with a thoughtful expression.

"No," she said firmly.

"What?"

"I know that look. That's your 'let's make a deal' look."

"Sleep in my bed, with me, tonight."

A look of pain crossed her face. "We've been here before. Has anything changed?"

He didn't answer.

"I didn't think so." Stephanie threw down her fork and got up to leave. "I'll be on the fourth floor if you need me."

Ranger's voice reached her as she opened the front door to the apartment.

"I'll team her up with Manny on surveillance from tomorrow."

"I'm not dealing for it."

"No deal. Just don't leave."

She closed the door again and walked slowly back to the table. He held out a hand to her. She hesitated then placed her own in his and allowed him to guide her back to her seat. They carried on eating in silence.

o0o0o0o0o

After dinner Stephanie called Connie to tell her that she would be doing some surveillance work starting tomorrow.

Connie was delighted to hear the news. "Yes! Finally."

"It's just surveillance," Stephanie warned. "It's going to be just as boring as hanging around the house."

"It couldn't be. Nothing is as boring as hanging around the house. At least this way I get to talk to the person that's watching over me."

"Yeah, and on the subject of talking to people, have you yet?"

"Nope. Not going there until I know how bad it is. I'm due in a couple of days anyway, so I might be worrying over nothing. What time do I need to come in?"

"Ranger says to ring Tank in the morning. He manages the roster."

Stephanie hung up and put her phone away then walked round to the living room where Ranger was sitting on the couch in front of the TV. He pulled her down next to him and she curled up into his arms.

o0o0o0o0o

Three days later Connie was sitting in a nondescript sedan with Manny, watching a duplex a few doors down. There had been a few activities to note; people coming and going, cars pulling up. She was fairly certain that whoever they were watching was selling something from the property. "So why are doing this?" she asked Manny.

"He's employed by one of RangeMan's clients. We think he's the reason why they have some unexplained stock losses, so we want to know what's coming and going at his house. Sorry you signed up now?"

"God, no! At least I'm bored for a purpose now."

"Keeping you under Gerard's radar was a purpose."

"Yeah, but it's been over a week now, and he hasn't been near me or Steph. How long till I can go back to my job?"

"The boss will say when he thinks it's time. No point in second guessing him."

"Easy for you to say. This is your regular job. This is normal for you."

"Nah, this is better than normal. You don't scratch your nuts every thirty seconds on surveillance like Zero does. And you brought cookies."

"Nice to see you've got your priorities straight."

o0o0o0o0o

The days settled into an easy rhythm of car journeys and fake couple charades. Manny was good company, and while they watched whatever they were supposed to be watching they chatted comfortably about his fiancée and the little house that they were fixing up. He told her about some of the more exciting work that RangeMan did and that they all looked forward to, and the purgatory of monitor duty. They all took regular turns on the monitors but if someone let Ranger down they could look forward to a week or more of solid monitor duty. They feared that more than any other punishment.

Given the trouble that her boredom had brought down on her, Connie heartily agreed with the sentiment.

o0o0o0o0o

She got her period a couple of days later, heaved a huge sigh of relief and promptly made an appointment to see her doctor about birth control. She couldn't believe that she hadn't even thought about it at the time. Lula was right; she was a dumbass, but it seemed that even dumbasses were allowed a reprieve. Possibly being a dumbass on the wrong side of the thirty helped, but she was grateful nonetheless.

o0o0o0o0o

On the fifth day of surveillance duty, things changed. She and Manny were sitting in a gray car eating potato chips and discussing movies while they watched a house when the radio link flared into life.

"Manny, are you guys free to check out Carnegie's? Their alarm's sounding. It's not one we have on monitor and it needs to be checked out in person."

"Sure, nothing doing here right now anyway," Manny responded. "ETA ten minutes."

He started the engine and pulled the car out into the traffic.

"What's Carnegie's?" Connie asked.

"Jewelry store. They have a contract with us. It's probably nothing, alarms misfire sometimes, but we always check them out."

Manny parked the car a few doors down from the store and they watched the front for a few moments. It looked quiet. They got out and Manny opened the trunk of the car. He pulled out two bullet-proof vests and handed one to Connie. "Put it on, just in case, but stay in the car. I'll check this out and be right back."

Connie watched as Manny walked cautiously over to the front of the store and looked through the security grille covering the window.

He returned to the car quickly and threw her the radio. "Call the control room now. Tell them that there are at least four armed intruders in the store and they're holding the manager in there. I'm going to watch the back until we get back-up, you watch the front. Do _not_ leave the car, you hear me?"

She nodded, and he disappeared into the alleyway beside the store. She raised the radio to speak to the control room. "Hello? It's Connie Rosolli."

"Hey, Connie. Everything okay at Carnegie's?

"No, we need back-up. There are intruders inside. Manny counted at least four, they're armed and they have the manager in there. He's covering the back until you get here."

"Where are you?"

"In the car out the front, parked on the street four doors down."

"Stand by, we're sending back-up. Stay by the radio and report any changes in the situation."

Connie waited in the car for ten nail-biting minutes. They checked in with her once a minute, confirming the current situation and asking questions about what she could see.

Finally headlights lit the street as four black SUVs pulled around the corner. Two turned into the parking lot at the rear of the store and the others pulled up right outside the store. The doors opened to discharge four heavily armed men in RangeMan black who took up positions covering the front of the store.

Suddenly there was a flurry of shouts inside the store and the sound of a single shot. The front door opened and a skinny man with wild eyes appeared in the doorway holding the frightened manager in front of him and pressing a gun up under his chin. He moved out slowly, keeping his back pressed to the wall behind him.

"Back off! I will shoot him!"

Connie sucked in a horrified breath.

The Rangemen held their positions, but no-one could get to him without endangering the manager while the armed man had his back to the wall and the manager in front of him.

Manny and another unfamiliar Rangeman emerged from the store slowly to join the men already at the front. They had him pinned down, but as long as he had the manager they were at a stalemate.

The manager was a slight man with graying hair. His eyes flicked from side to side in panic watching the grim faced, armed men surrounding them.

"I mean it! Back up!" the robber yelled again.

"Not a chance, man," Manny said grimly.

A set of headlights illuminated the stalemate as another car turned on to the street. Connie prayed that it was the police and not another civilian to throw into the mix.

It was neither. Ranger's black Porsche pulled in behind the car Connie was sitting in and he got out, gun already in hand.

"Oh fuck, no!" The robber looked like he might vomit when he saw Ranger.

Ranger's voice was icy. "I'm only going to say this once. Put down the gun and step away."

And that was all it took. The robber nodded shakily and lowered the gun from his hostage's chin and put the weapon on the ground. As he stepped away he disappeared under black clad figures.

Ranger put a hand to the shaking manager's back and escorted him back into the store. "Let's get this place secured then we'll take you to the station to make your report. My men will bring him and the rest in separately."

The manager nodded silently and went with him. Ranger caught Connie's eye and indicated with his head for her to join them.

She emerged from the car and, squeezing past the Rangemen that were dragging the unconscious bodies of the other robbers out onto the street, she followed Ranger into the store. Looking back at the aftermath, she could see that one was lying very still and there was blood pooled beneath him.

"Keys." Ranger held his hand out to the manager, who dropped them into it with visibly shaking hands. "Help him call his family and keep him calm while I check the place," he instructed Connie. "You're in street clothes and you won't intimidate him so much. A team will bring someone to the station for him and make sure that the house is secure."

She nodded and helped the shocked manager to a chair. She crouched down next to him. "Tell me your number and I'll call home. You married?"

He nodded.

"You want us to bring your wife out to meet you at the station?"

"Please."

She rang his wife and instructed her to wait for the RangeMan team that would collect her and bring her to the station. While Ranger secured the premises, she helped the manager out to the SUV that was waiting to take him.

When the SUV had left, Ranger turned to her. "Forget the surveillance for the night. Take the car back with Manny then call it a night. You can pick up again tomorrow."

She nodded and walked towards the surveillance car, where Manny was sitting on the bonnet waiting. As she opened the door, Ranger called over to her, "You did well tonight."

She looked up in surprise, but he was already getting into the Porsche and closing the door behind him.


	9. Trial no 8

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.8

After another week with no sign of trouble, Ranger let things return to normal. Connie resumed work at the bonds office and the guards were reassigned to other work.

Vinnie had been delighted to have her back, although she suspected that his feelings had more to do with relief that he had someone else to write bond for him, while he resumed his activities in his locked office.

She found the four walls of the bonds office hard to take at first after the constant change of the surveillance assignments and she missed her conversations with Manny, but she had missed Lula more. She was even pleased to see Vinnie, although torture wouldn't drag that little piece of information past her lips where anyone could hear it. All in all it was good to be back.

o0o0o0o0o

Back to normal lasted all of three days. On the fourth day everything changed. It was half past five and she was just locking up the bonds office for the night. Vinnie had left an hour earlier, muttering something about an appointment to see a man about a dog. Knowing Vinnie, she hadn't inquired further.

Lula had gone ahead of her into the parking lot talking loudly and cheerfully about her date with Tank at the weekend, and Connie was laughing as she set the alarm.

"So, I said to him, 'Baby, I'll keep these shoes on all night if you want me to, just check the hotel ain't put us in a room with a water bed, that's all I'm sayin'."

"And what did he say?" Connie called over her shoulder as she turned the key in the deadlock.

"He said that we had a date before we were so rudely interrupted," an unpleasantly familiar voice murmured in her ear.

She froze with horror, wondering if she had a chance to reach her gun. She started to inch her hand down slowly towards her purse, but before she could reach it she heard a click and Lula's voice.

"You are so wrong. Now move your nasty smelling ass away from my friend before I shoot you a new asshole that smells even worse than the one you already got."

Gerard stepped back with his hands in the air, shoved backwards against Lula, whirled and ran out of the parking lot. Lula fired a wild shot that went nowhere near him, and he was gone.

Connie sagged. "Shit."

"You got that right. Now open the door again. We got calls to make."

o0o0o0o0o

Tank put the phone down and walked round to Ranger's office. "Problem. Gerard was at the bonds office tonight. Lula just stopped him from grabbing Connie at the back door. Took a shot at him but he got away. You want the guards back on her?"

"No, put a man on Steph, I don't think she's the target, but I want Connie in and under lock and key."

"You can't hide her in the building for ever."

"I won't have to. Bring her in, keep her in and give her a job rough enough that she'll believe it's one of the ten. That way she won't fight it."

"What job?" Tank asked.

"I don't know, be creative."

"And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to hunt down Gerard."

o0o0o0o0o

The day of Connie's next job dawned three days after Gerard's re-appearance. The Toys 'R' Us delivery had arrived the day before and one of the conference rooms had been set up for her. She had no idea why Ranger thought that this should be one of her ten jobs, or why it required her to stay on the fourth floor for several days, but she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She had faced horny, naked thieves, armed robbers, strippers, bail jumpers, pimps and rats. Babysitting a few kids for the afternoon was going to be a walk in the park.

Tank was waiting for her when she reported to the control room. "You ready?"

"Absolutely," she replied confidently.

He looked at her for a moment. "You know much about kids?"

"None of my own, but plenty of them at Italian family gatherings. How bad can it be?"

He shook his head pityingly. "A word to the wise. Watch LJ. Like a hawk."

"LJ?"

"One of Lester's."

"Lester has kids? I didn't know he was married."

Tank looked at her as if he couldn't believe that she had even asked the question. "He's not."

"Then how… okay, stupid question. Forget I asked."

They walked to a large conference room on the third floor that she hadn't seen before. The tables were pushed to one side and there were a series of play-mats laid out on the floor. Connie counted ten children sitting with their fathers. They were all old enough to be walking and talking, and she would have guessed that they were between the ages of about three and eight, not that she knew much about children to be certain.

Tank introduced each man, who in turn introduced his children.

Vince had brought two children, a girl, Tegan, and her younger brother, Tommy. They both had fair skin, dark blonde hair and a ready smile like their father. Tegan had lost her two front teeth and was sporting a gap-toothed grin.

Bobby had a breathtakingly cute little girl that he called Angel. She had cocoa brown skin and her hair was braided into neat little cornrows. She was one of the smallest children in the room and she regarded Connie with huge, watchful eyes as she clung to her father's neck like a limpet.

Cal was next with his son. Sammy was a tall boy with blue eyes, a shock of black hair and an impish face. He beamed happily at her from his spot standing next to his father, and Connie was relieved to note a shortage of tattoos.

Rodriguez nodded shortly at Connie and introduced three neat-looking children as Carla, Max and Maria. They all had straight dark hair and olive skin, and watched her with solemn faces.

"And finally," Tank said with a pained expression on his face, "we have Lester's hellsp… children."

Lester grinned at Tank. "I rounded them all up especially for the occasion."

Connie looked at the children, then back to Lester with a confused expression. "Are they," she paused, then decided to mouth the last word silently in case they were too young to understand, "adopted?"

"Nope. All my own flesh and blood. Beautiful, aren't they?"

Lester's offspring should have been in a Benetton commercial. The youngest, Ryan, had wavy, light brown hair, light olive skin and bright blue eyes. Chantal, the girl, had a slightly darker complexion than her brother, almond eyes that hinted at Asian ancestry and long, straight, black hair. "And this," said Lester cheerfully, indicating the oldest child, "is Lester Junior."

Lester Junior, a.k.a. LJ, a.k.a. 'that little monster' in his school's staffroom when the door was closed and the coffee was poured with shaking hands. He was a tall boy with warm caramel skin, black hair that lay in loose curls and a smile that suggested that trouble was probably brewing.

Connie realized that, courtesy of the Burg, she had led a very sheltered life.

"I guess you don't run into many baby-daddies in the Burg," said Tank.

"Not really," she answered weakly.

o0o0o0o0o

Cal, Vince, Rodriguez and Bobby all admonished their children to be good for Connie and to do what they were told. Lester just waved at his three and told them to have a good time. They left the room and Connie looked at the children. They looked back at her. It looked like it was up to her to break the ice.

"Hi, I'm Connie."

They all just looked at her.

Connie closed her eyes. There had to be a way to communicate with them. They were people, after all, just very small ones. Toys, she decided, let's start with the toys. "Shall we see what I brought for you to play with?"

That did it. Nine children turned as one and stampeded towards the box sitting by the door. The hive mind in living color. That left one. Angel was standing staring at her with a thumb in her mouth. She squatted down to get to the same level as the smallest child. "What's the matter, sweetie?"

Angel held up her arms in a silent plea.

"You want a hug?" Connie's heart warmed, and she picked the little girl up. Angel wrapped her arms around her neck and settled in. Connie gave her a short hug and tried to set her down again, but Angel refused to let go of Connie's neck and hung there whimpering. Connie gave in. "Okay, you can stay up there for a little while, but we have to see what the other children are doing."

Connie saw Sammy and LJ huddled together in a corner looking at something. Remembering Tank's warning, she decided that she would start with them. She crossed the room towards the boys, carrying Angel in her arms. "What're you doing, boys?"

Sammy started guiltily and LJ moved his hand behind his back quickly.

Connie narrowed her eyes. "Show me."

LJ smiled knowingly and brought his hand round and up towards her face. There was a large, hairy spider in the palm of his hand.

"Fuck!" Connie sprang back, heart beating wildly. Angel hung on tight.

"She said 'fuck'!" LJ shouted joyfully. "Connie said 'fuck'! Connie said 'fuck'!"

"LJ, stop that right now."

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Sammy joined in too. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

"Stop that now, boys. _I said_ _stop that_. I SAID _SHUT UP_!"

Finally they stopped, but they didn't exactly look worried. Connie beat a hasty retreat while the going was good. She was sure she heard LJ mutter something behind her back as she moved away.

It sounded like, "No fair, she didn't scream."

o0o0o0o0o

She decided to check on the girls next. Tegan, Carla, Maria and Chantal were playing with some Play Doh. Connie looked over their shoulders and saw the brightly colored array of pies, cakes and pizza slices and smiled. Learning to be like their moms already. Girls were so much more civilized than boys. Much easier. She leaned in and listened to their conversation.

"I bet you he will," Chantal was saying. "He's done it before."

"I don't believe you," Tegan answered. "Boys are dumb, but no-one is that dumb."

"Watch this then." Chantal called her little brother over. "Ryan, look! I made something nice for you. It's a cake. Why don't you take a bite?"

Ryan eagerly accepted the piece of Play Doh shaped like a cake and popped it into his mouth.

"You see?" Chantal said to the other three girls. "Boys are dumb."

Connie gasped in horror. "Ryan, no! Nasty! Spit it out!"

The little boy just kept chewing happily.

Connie tried to put Angel down, but she just wailed and tightened her grip around her neck. "Honey, please, get down for just a minute!"

Angel silently refused. Connie didn't have much more time before Ryan swallowed his cake, so she gave up and tried to use the fingers of her one free hand to force his mouth open and extract the dough. "Eew. God, that's nasty!"

She managed to get most of it out and threw the sticky mess of dough into a waste paper basket. She couldn't do much to clean her hands with only one hand free, so she had to wipe her fingers over the front of her sweatshirt. Lovely.

That left the other two younger boys, Tommy and Max, unaccounted for. She looked around the room for them. Nowhere to be seen. She caught a movement from the corner of her eye and looked under the tables at the side of the room.

There they were. Drawing on the wall of the RangeMan conference room with the fat crayons that she had provided.

"No!" she yelped. "Bad! Out of there!"

When they had reluctantly crawled out of their hideaway she tried to move them onto a less destructive path. "Look, Lego! I bet you could make a house. Why don't you try to make a house? Please, make a house? For me?"

She heard one of the girls giggle behind her and turned, dreading what she was about to see before she even knew what it was. "Oh, dear God, no. Please, no."

Sammy and LJ had found some brightly colored marker pens in the box and shucked their tee-shirts, and they were now carefully drawing tattoos onto their bodies. Sammy already had one on his forehead that looked like a crude copy of his father's flaming skull tattoo, and he was currently drawing a crooked dog on his belly. LJ was carefully filling in a tribal band around his left bicep.

"What in the name of God are you two _doing_?"

"We're looking like our dads," LJ answered. "Sammy wanted a picture on his head like his dad's but I think it looks dumb, I'm doing one like my dad's. My dad says you get way more pussy with a tribal, and I always wanted a cat."

Jesus wept. "You two, outside to the bathroom. Go wash those off, _now_."

Connie watched them leave with her heart in her mouth. There was no way that she could leave the younger children unattended while she escorted those two to the bathroom. She would have to trust them to wash up and come straight back. Something told her that this was unlikely to happen. She was way out of her depth.

Someone tugged her sleeve. She looked round and saw Tegan standing behind her looking anxious.

"Miss Connie, My brother just swallowed a Lego!"

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie was having coffee with Mary Lou in a Burg café when her cell rang.

"Hey, Connie. How's it going?.. What?.. Okay, let me ask Mare, she's right here. Mare, Connie says one of the kids just swallowed a piece of Lego. Does she need to take him to the emergency room?"

"Ask her how many bumps it had on top," Mary Lou replied.

"Connie, how many bumps did it have on top? Okay, I'll hang on while you ask her." Stephanie waited with the phone to her ear for a minute. "Mare, she says probably two. What should she do?"

"Don't panic. Two bumps usually pass straight through. You need to check, though, and go to the emergency room if it doesn't pass on its own." Mary Lou's voice had the confidence of one who had been through this one before.

Stephanie passed the answer on, then turned back to Mary Lou again. "Connie says do you know the best way to tell a mercenary that their child swallowed Lego on her watch and that they are going to have to check their kid's crap to see if it passes."

Mary Lou choked on her mouthful of coffee.

"I think you're on your own with that one. Whose kid is it?" Stephanie asked. "No, I think you're okay; Vince is pretty cool about most things. We'll tell him together, just in case. Has anything else gone wrong?"

She listened for a minute. "Okay, that's not good. I'm going to call someone to help you. Don't worry, we'll set it up so it's not obvious. Anyway, we need to make sure that RangeMan still has a building at the end of the day."

Stephanie hung up then dialed another number. "Hal, are you in the office today? Good, I have a job for you. It's tricky, but trust me, you'll be glad you did it. I need you to find a reason to go to the third floor bathrooms…"

o0o0o0o0o

Connie closed her cell and tried to take deep breaths while she waited for the cavalry to arrive. Then she heard a loud thump coming from the other side of the conference room. Max had just jumped from the top of one of the tables and landed on the carpet. Ryan was poised ready for launch, and Tommy was scrambling up on to the table for a turn, clearly not feeling any ill effects from the Lego swimming around in his stomach.

"NO!" she shouted.

Ryan made his leap anyway, and was quickly followed by Tommy. Max was climbing up to do it again, so she grabbed him by the back of his pants and hoisted him off the table and into the air.

Connie sagged with the strain of suspending a small boy from one hand at the same time as having the weight of a small girl hanging around her neck.

"Enough," she hissed, and the other two boys stopped, looking mutinous. She lowered Tommy to the ground as quickly as she could and felt a twinge in her upper back.

At that moment, the door to the conference room opened and Hal walked in with a dripping wet child in each hand.

"Dear God, look at them! What were they doing in there?" she moaned.

"Spray fights with the bathroom faucets. Don't worry, Luis is already on it. There's a tray of sandwiches on its way down too. I talked to Ella, and she says that food should calm them down for a while. I have to get back to the control room before I'm missed, but I'll be back at the end of my shift."

"I could kiss you."

"Eew, Connie wants to kiss Hal!" Carla had overheard her and conveyed her disgust to the rest of the room.

"Yuk! He's a boy. Boys have cooties." Maria was also deeply unimpressed. Chantal and Tegan were screwing up their faces and making kissy noises.

"You're having fun then," Hal commented.

"Suddenly I miss the rats in the dark. That was so much easier."

o0o0o0o0o

The trays of sandwiches arrived and the children tore into them like a ravening horde. Angel still refused to get down, though, and insisted on leaning down precariously from Connie's shoulder to grab a sandwich. She was currently dropping breadcrumbs down the front of Connie's tee-shirt as she ate. A little heap of crumbs was accumulating in Connie's bra between her breasts.

She noticed that Maria wasn't eating anything. "What's the matter, Maria? Don't you want anything to eat?"

"Don't like them."

"But there are chicken ones here. How about a nice chicken sandwich?"

"Don't like chicken," she muttered.

"Okay, how about a ham one? Or there are some cheese ones, look." Connie pointed them out.

"Don't like them either."

Her sister, Carla, jumped in. "She eats all of those things at home, miss."

"Is that true, Maria? Why won't you eat them here?" Connie asked.

"Don't like these ones."

"Well, if you don't eat any sandwiches, I can't let you have any candy. And I'm sure you like candy, don't you?" She looked at her and tried to envisage that she was staring down a rattlesnake.

Maria reluctantly took a cheese sandwich and forced it down as if it contained ground glass.

When all the children had eaten something, Connie produced the promised candy. She had opted for Sweet Tarts, figuring that they would all like those. All the children stuffed their faces, including Maria this time. She had no reservations about candy by the looks of it.

o0o0o0o0o

"Miss, I need to pee." Max had a worried look on his face and he was gripping his pants at the crotch.

"Okay, hold on sweetie, I'll find someone to take you."

"Can't wait." He started to dance a little.

"I need to go too, miss," Tommy said, and his sister nodded too.

"Well that's three of you." She raised her voice. "Okay, how many of you need to go?"

Six hands shot up in the air and Angel tugged at the neck of her tee-shirt.

"Miss, I need to go _now_." Max's voice was anguished.

"Right then, we all go."

The children all massed at the door to the conference room. She waded through to the front and opened the door, and they all trooped out after her.

Connie realized that she had no idea where the bathrooms were on this floor, but it stood to reason that they were around here somewhere. The solution was standing in front of her.

"Sammy, LJ, we're returning to the scene of the crime. Show me the way to the bathroom."

"_Miss!_" Max wailed.

"-quickly."

LJ gave her a mischievous salute that made him the image of his absent father and disappeared around the corner at a run.

She stifled a curse that would have made LJ shout with glee if he'd heard it. "After him, you lot."

The group shuffled into a run and followed LJ.

"I'm gonna pee!" Max moaned and they picked up the speed. Angel squealed with laughter as she bounced in Connie's arms.

They found the bathroom at the end of the corridor with LJ leaning against the wall outside. Connie shepherded them all in and Max sprinted into one of the stalls. Tegan and Tommy grabbed the other two while the others milled around waiting.

When they came out, another three went in, and Connie held Max and Tommy up to the sinks in turn, followed by the hand driers.

While the second batch were in the stalls a man in black walked into the bathroom and did a horrified double-take before walking out again.

"Coward!" Connie called after him.

She insisted that everybody go, whether they needed to or not, and finally every child was finished, washed and dried. They moved en-masse down the corridor back to the conference room.

o0o0o0o0o

About half an hour later, the wonderful peace that the sandwiches had given her was broken as a fight erupted between Lester's older two children.

"You're lying!" Chantal shrieked. "My mommy is daddy's girlfriend!"

"Daddy comes to see us every month. That makes my mommy his girlfriend," scowled LJ. "Anyway, I have the same name as him. That makes me special."

"Everyone knows your mommy just did that to try to make him marry her. My mommy says Daddy is just a tom-cat anyway. Everybody knows Daddy doesn't marry anyone and everybody knows he loves me the best!"

"You don't know anything! He's _my_ daddy. _I'm_ his family, not you, and not him." LJ waved in Ryan's direction.

Ryan started to wail, and Connie rushed over to him. She looked at the crying child and half-heartedly tried to dislodge Angel from her aching neck. Nothing doing, just like the last five times she had tried. She braced herself and scooped Ryan up with her free arm. There was some jockeying for position between his arms and Angel's, but eventually they managed to find a way round each other and both children snuggled into her neck. She sank into a large chair before her spine snapped.

The cuddle calmed him down, and Ryan's wailing gradually descended into heart-wrenching sobs as he buried his face in her neck. "My daddy does love me, he told me so."

Connie choked back a sudden lump in her throat. "Of course he does, precious. Your daddy loves you just as much as he loves your brother and sister."

If Connie survived this, she was going to have words with Lester.

From the other side of her head, Angel whispered her first words of the day into her ear. "Is the other boy very sad?"

"Yes, sweetheart, he is. Do you think maybe you could be his friend today and help him be happy?"

Angel reached out a little hand and stroked Ryan's arm silently.

He sniffed a little, and the sobs slowed to whimpers, then finally he was silent.

Connie made a decision. She kicked her chair into a corner of the room where she could see all the others and sat back down. As of this moment, the kids could trash the room for all she cared. She would intervene if it looked like someone might get hurt, but right now she was going to sit here with these two until her heart stopped hurting.

o0o0o0o0o

Hal came back at three o'clock and stopped short as he surveyed the bedlam in the room. The brightly colored confectionary had done its job and the children were in the middle of a massive sugar high.

Sammy and LJ were wrestling in the centre of the room, trying out WWE moves on two large teddy bears. Max, Tommy, Tegan and Maria were running a wall-of-death around the room which involved climbing up onto the row of tables, running along them and jumping off the other end, then doing a complicated vertical slalom through a row of chairs which involved climbing over one chair, then under the next, then over another and so on, then round the room until they reached the tables ready to start again. The oldest girls, Carla and Chantal, had staked out a corner and were using the colored markers to paint their nails different colors. They occasionally shrieked in protest and threw pieces of Lego at the runners if the wall-of-death circuit got too close to their little beauty parlor.

Hal located Connie in her corner and made his way across when he spotted a suitable break in the wall-of-death runners. Angel and Ryan had dozed off in her arms and she was sitting quietly in her chair so as not to disturb them.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep. We're fine. If you look, Chantal and Carla are actually pretty good at nails. I'm thinking about getting them some proper nail polish. And Sammy and LJ have some pretty good moves on them, don't they? Must be the military dad thing coming out."

"I can see that they're all alive and well, and I'm glad the control room isn't right underneath this room, but are _you_ okay?"

"I'm good. Just prioritizing."

Hal opened his mouth to say something, then changed his mind and closed it again.

Connie saw, and narrowed her eyes. "Say it."

"I shouldn't."

"_Say it_," she insisted.

"Do you promise to still talk to me afterwards if you don't like it?" Hal asked.

She nodded impatiently.

"I was going to say that you wouldn't believe how good you look with those kids asleep in your arms."

Connie's jaw dropped and she stared at him incredulously.

Hal cringed. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I just looked at you and couldn't help thinking it."

"No, it's okay. You just… surprised me, that's all. I was expecting a comment about the wall-of-death squad or something. But now that we've got that out of the way, come here and take one of them off me. My back is killing me."

"Okay, give me Angel. She's met me before when her mom was sick and Bobby brought her in for Ella to watch." Hal gently took the little girl out of Connie's arms. Angel woke up with the movement, and sleepily wrapped her arms around his neck instead.

Connie's aching back and neck applauded the move, and she decided to stay right where she was, just resettling Ryan on her lap now there was a little more space.

o0o0o0o0o

With Hal around, the afternoon went a lot more smoothly. Ryan slept on in Connie's lap while she enjoyed a front row seat of Hal crawling around on his hands and knees with a succession of squealing children sitting on his back. It turned out that Rangemen were pretty strong horses, because at one point there were three of them on board at once. When his knees gave up, the weightlifting started, with him lifting them each in turn above his head like a weightlifting bar.

After an hour of this he had to call a halt and sit down for a while. He tore himself away from the pleading children, begging for a rest. He came and sat on the floor in front of Connie's chair where he could lean back against her legs. His short hair was damp at the temples and sweat was sticking to his black RangeMan tee-shirt and beading the skin of his neck. She fought a momentary urge to lean forward and lick it off.

"I thought that you Rangemen were tough. Don't you lift weights in the gym?"

He nodded. "Sure. I can lift 200lb in the gym, but weights in the gym don't shout, "Again, again!"

o0o0o0o0o

An hour later the children were finally starting to flag too. The boisterous games had stopped, and after a break for cookies and juice they had settled down to play quietly with the Lego and the Play Doh. Thankfully, nothing else had been accidentally eaten or swallowed.

Ryan started to stir on Connie's lap, then she felt something warm and wet soak through her tee-shirt and pants.

"What the hell? Oh, eew!"

Ryan had wet himself while sleeping. Connie realized that she hadn't seen any bags of spare clothing, and she hadn't thought for a minute that something like this might happen so she certainly didn't have anything. She shifted Ryan carefully and stood up.

"Hal, help!"

"What's the matter? Oh, damn."

"What do I do?" she asked, helplessly.

"Wait there, and I'll see what I can find for you." Hal left the room at a fast walk.

He came back five minutes later with a couple of tee-shirts. "This is the best I could do in a hurry. I have some wipes, a couple of towels, one of Ella's old shirts for Ryan, and a clean one out of my locker for you, if that's okay?"

"If it's dry, it's better than okay. Thanks."

Ryan was fully awake and thoroughly uncomfortable by now. Connie took him to the bathroom and stripped his wet clothes off, then wiped him down with the wipes and dried him with one of the towels. Then she pulled the tee-shirt over his head. Even though Ella was a small woman it still almost brushed the floor, but at least he was dry and comfortable. She took him back to the conference room and handed him off to Hal before making another trip for herself.

She looked at herself ruefully in the mirror and shook her head. Fortunately the tee-shirt came almost to her knees, because the pants were way too wet to keep on. She looked more like a woman that had just risen from her lover's bed than a harried babysitter. Oh well. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to the conference room.

When she got back into the room, the party was over and the children were being collected. Stephanie had arrived and was chatting to the parents, and Hal was getting hugs left, right and center from the children.

Angel had surgically attached herself to Bobby's neck and gave Connie a little wave over his shoulder.

Rodriguez's children had reverted to solemn and obedient, and she somehow doubted that he would believe a word if she had told him about the day's events. They each thanked her for a lovely time, and Connie wondered if there were pods in the next room that had hatched while she was in the bathroom.

Tegan and Tommy were bouncing around Vince, telling him about the weightlifting and the horse rides, and Vince was looking at Hal with a pitying expression. He shook his hand. "Above the call of duty, man."

Connie braced herself and joined them. "I'm afraid there's something I need to tell you. I think that Tommy swallowed a piece of Lego. I asked for advice and-"

"And I've got shi… poo-combing duty coming up. Don't worry, Steph already told me." Vince seemed surprisingly calm about it. "If I find it, I'll add it to the marble and the GI Joe helmet that made their way through as well." He scruffed Tommy's hair. "One day I'm gonna wire your jaw shut and feed you through a straw so you can't swallow stuff."

That left the other one that she was worried about. The crude flaming skull on Sammy's forehead looked like it was laughing at her. She faced Cal apologetically. "I am so sorry, I swear I just took my eyes off him for a minute, and-"

"It's okay," Cal cut in. "It'll wash off eventually. Anyway, I can hardly get upset because he wants to look like his old man, can I?"

Connie wondered if being in the security business made these men unflappable or if Ranger just hired people like that. Either way she was grateful.

That just left Lester. He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her. "Like the outfit. You got anything else on under there?"

She looked at him and shook her head then walked away, not trusting herself to say anything civil.

She crouched down in front of Ryan. "We both look funny, huh?"

He smiled and nodded.

"Come here." Connie gave him a last hug, then got up and let him rejoin his father and half-brother and sister.

Stephanie was waiting to the side of the room. "What was that all about?"

"It's just… you know the way we rail at the Burg and the way it expects us to behave like perfect little Stepford families sometimes?"

Stephanie nodded curiously.

"Well, maybe there's a point there somewhere." Connie nodded in the direction that Lester had taken. "He's nice and he's funny and sexy, and he can get any girl he wants, but those kids happened along the way and I spent the afternoon watching them tear themselves up. It just about broke my heart. And I don't know what I can do about it. I don't think there's anything I _can_ do about it. The Burg would hunt him down and make him do something about it."

She shook her head. "Ah, what do I know about kids anyway. Forget I said anything. Take me home? Well, to the fourth floor anyway?" she asked Hal.

"Of course. Did I mention how good you look wearing just my tee-shirt?"

She rolled her eyes. "You thought I looked good buried under other people's kids and covered with Play Doh and drool. I figure you're just easily pleased."

"If you're going to insult me then I'm taking it back."

She ran a finger across his bicep. "Take me home first, and then I'll let you take it off me yourself."

Stephanie sighed. "Don't mind me, you two. I can claw my eyes out after you've gone. I guess I'll go and ask Hector to arrange a glitch on the fourth floor cameras. Again."

o0o0oo0o0o

A quiet click from the direction of her front door woke Stephanie at three a.m. She reached down the side of the bed and pulled her gun from its position tucked underneath the mattress, cocked it and aimed it at the door. She lowered it again when Ranger walked into the room. His shoulders were slumped and he looked tired.

"What's going on?" she asked softly.

"Gerard's gone to ground. He knows I'm looking for him."

"What do you do next?"

He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Keep looking."

"You look rough."

He almost smiled. "Good to know."

You can stay here if you want. If you promise not to take off again. What was that all about, anyway?"

"Trying to do the right thing. You didn't break up with Morelli by your own choice. I was trying to keep you connected to your own world and not pull you any further into mine."

"So why are you here now?"

"Because you looked for me. I'm not that good a man."

She lifted the corner of her quilt to invite him in. He climbed in fully clothed and curled himself around her gratefully. She felt him relax around her and went back to sleep herself.

o0o0o0o0o

_A few little author's notes in case I've confused the hell out of anyone:_

_Benetton are famous for using pictures of children of different ethnic origin in its poster campaigns. An example can be seen here:_

.com/ben_en/about/campaigns/list/children_on_potties/?t=print&version=1

_The definition of a baby-daddy from _

"A guy who isn't your boyfriend, or your husband, or even really your friend, but happens to be the father of your child."


	10. Trial no 9 part 1

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.9 – part 1

Ranger's cell-phone woke Stephanie again an hour later. She drowsed, only half aware, as he removed the arm that had been wrapped around her middle and reached for the phone on the bedside table.

"Yo."

She caught occasional snatches of the terse conversation but was too sleepy to really be aware of anything except the loss of warmth as he let go of her and got out of the bed.

"Ranger?" she murmured.

Gentle fingers combed through her hair. "Got to go, Babe. Go back to sleep."

Her eyes snapped open. "What? You just-"

He stopped her words abruptly with a kiss. "Keep Connie out of sight until you hear from me or Tank, you hear me?"

Any further protest died on her lips as she realized why he was leaving in the middle of the night. "Be careful."

He nodded and left, buckling his utility belt on as he walked out of her bedroom.

She didn't sleep after he left.

o0o0o0o0o

The following morning Stephanie was fuzzy from lack of sleep but too anxious to rest. It was an odd combination that left her feeling much the same as she had at college when she had stayed awake for two days straight with the aid of caffeine pills to cram for an exam. After all that, she'd still failed.

She hung around her apartment, not knowing quite what to do with herself. She was tired but too antsy to rest. Finally she decided that running searches would at least keep her occupied, and maybe she would hear any news that came through the control room. That, and she could keep herself awake using the high-octane coffee that the guys on monitor duty sometimes drank when they started to get fuzzy round the edges.

She grabbed her purse and went out to the parking lot, where she saw Zero sitting in a black SUV in the corner of the lot. "I'm going into the office for the day, so you're off the hook."

He nodded. "I'll follow you in."

"You don't need to, you know."

"C'mon Bombshell, I have orders. Give me a break."

She stifled a yawn. "Fine. Let's go. Wouldn't want to get you into trouble." She got into her own car and pulled out of the lot.

o0o0o0o0o

The trouble started two streets away from home when the old lady driving in front of her braked hard. Stephanie had to stamp on her own brakes and bring her piece of shit car screeching to a halt. She just missed her, and sat gripping the steering wheel with shaking hands while she tried to start breathing again. Zero stopped behind her in a more orderly fashion. Just as Zero opened the door to get out and come over, the driver behind him leaned on the horn and Stephanie pulled herself together and started moving again.

A couple of minutes later a car pulled out in front of her and she had to swerve hard to miss it. This time she leaned on the horn herself, attracting a raised finger from the other driver as he pulled away. "Asshole. Learn to drive," she muttered as she pulled back into the stream of traffic.

And so it continued. It was like the population of Trenton had forgotten how to drive as soon as she was anywhere near them. She had a series of near misses and she had left half her tires on the road by the time she reached RangeMan.

Zero pulled in next to her and got out of the SUV.

"Did you see what people were doing?" Stephanie asked him as she locked her car up. "It's like the whole of Trenton forgot how to drive this morning."

Zero locked his own vehicle with shaking hands. "Like _they_ forgot how to drive? Jesus, Bombshell, we're lucky you made it here without killing anyone."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was already hanging round the control room like a wraith when Stephanie walked in.

"What's up?" Stephanie greeted her.

"Nothing. That's exactly the point. Tank says I need to stay in the building but he won't tell me why, just that I'll get more information when it's time. I just hang around here. I did offer to help Ella clean the apartments."

"I bet that went down well."

"Like I'd just offered to adopt her firstborn."

"Yeah, that's Ella. She takes looking after us very personally. You could always use the gym."

"What? On my own?"

"Sure, why not? I do sometimes."

"Yeah, but you're part of the team. I don't know what I am. Possibly a prisoner."

"You're _not_ a prisoner," Stephanie said firmly.

"Then why can't I leave?"

"Because… because… shit, just because, all right?"

Connie's eyes narrowed. "You know something, don't you."

"Of course I don't."

"You _do_. Are you my friend or not?"

"It's not that simple," Stephanie protested.

"Okay, let's make it simple. I'll tell your mother about your dance at Babylon if you don't tell me."

"You wouldn't."

"I'm a woman on the edge. Try me."

"Bitch."

Connie shrugged.

Stephanie sighed. "You know what? I need a cup of coffee. I need _lots_ of coffee. Let's go to your apartment for coffee."

"But the break room is just-"

"I _said_, let's go to your room for coffee."

Connie's mouth formed a round 'O' as comprehension arrived. "I'm sure there's a coffee maker in my apartment."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie let Stephanie into the fourth floor apartment that she was using. It was exactly the same as the one that Stephanie had used in the past, so she was able to find the coffee machine straight away. She filled and started it, and fussed around finding mugs.

"Milk. There's no milk."

Connie had followed her to lean against the counter with her arms folded and one hip cocked. "Forget the milk."

"I can't drink coffee without milk."

"Then forget the damn coffee. Tell me what you know."

"No, I really need the coffee." Stephanie could almost hear Connie's teeth grinding.

"_Fine_," Connie said, "I'll go and get some milk." She pulled a familiar-looking pouch from a drawer and stalked out of the apartment. She returned a few minutes later with a carton of milk, which she slammed onto the counter. "_Milk_."

"You weren't gone long enough to get that from the break room."

"So help me, if you don't start talking I'm going to shoot you. It's Cal's milk, I just stole it out of his refrigerator, I'll replace it for him later. Now _talk_."

Stephanie didn't answer, just poured coffee into the mugs and added milk. Finally she walked over to the couch with her mug and sat down staring into nothing. "Ranger's in the wind."

"So? Ranger's always in the wind. What does that have to do with me?"

"He's hunting Gerard," Stephanie said reluctantly, not meeting her eyes.

Connie joined her on the couch. "So what's he going to do when he finds him?" she asked quietly.

"He hasn't said. I haven't asked."

"Well, what do you think he's going to do to him?"

"I don't know. I don't want to know. What I do know is that you need to stay here. For a while, at least."

"Would you?"

"You heard the story of how I broke out of here. Do you remember what happened next?"

They both sat in silence on the couch and stared into space for a long time.

"I don't want this," Connie said finally. "I don't want someone hurt because of me."

Stephanie didn't answer.

o0o0o0o0o

"Searches!" Stephanie announced from out of the blue.

Connie jumped. They had been quiet for so long, just sitting staring into space, that she had almost forgotten that Stephanie was there. "What?"

"Let's go do some searches."

"Why?"

"Because you have nothing to do. Because we need a distraction. And because RangeMan's search programs have to be seen to be believed. You can find out anything about anyone."

Connie thought about this. "Anything?"

"Pretty much."

"About anyone."

"Yup."

Connie took a deep breath and turned to directly face Stephanie. "We are women of the Burg," she said with her best poker face on. "We have a responsibility, a duty even, to make ourselves useful. A Burg woman's hands should never be idle."

"You know, that's just what I was thinking."

"And if, in the process of being helpful, we should happen to accidentally find out things about people we know…"

"It wouldn't be our fault. Not really."

Connie got to her feet. "I couldn't possibly stay at RangeMan, sleeping in one of Ranger's apartments and eating his food, without trying to make myself useful. My goodness, no." She laced her fingers together with her palms facing out and stretched her arms until her finger joints clicked. "Lead me to the search computer."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie pulled up an extra chair in the cubby and they both sat in front of the computer monitor. She opened a search program, pulled the pulled the top file from the in-tray and read out the name on the front. "Samuel Williams. Business owner, interested in contracting RangeMan for security services."

"We're going to do actual searches?" Connie asked.

"No, we're going to have the file open on the desk in case anyone comes over to see what we're doing. Now, who shall we look up first?"

"Joyce, it's got to be Joyce."

"Okay. This is the main program. Let's find out what it can tell us about Joyce Barnhart."

Connie typed the name into the search box and ceremoniously hit the enter key. "How long does it normally take?"

"A few minutes. I'll grab us some more coffee. You get ready to close the window if anyone comes in."

When Stephanie got back with the coffee, Connie was trying to smother a smile of glee at what she was reading. Stephanie leaned over her shoulder and started reading.

"Oh my God!"

"Yeah. I didn't even know that humans could get mange," Connie said.

"So how do you think she got it?"

Connie shuddered. "I don't even want to think about it."

Stephanie continued to look over the information on the screen. "Hey look, it's got why she quit the make up counter job. Oh, _yes_. Joyce, you bad, bad girl. You didn't quit at all. You got fired."

"For offering behind the counter services to a customer's husband. _Shame_ on you, Joyce," Connie sniggered. "Hey look, sexual health clinic records. How the hell do they get this stuff? This is supposed to be confidential."

"Ours is not to reason why. Ours is to find out what Joyce has been up to. Quick, open it."

"Doing it, right now… Oh, look at this. There are no words for this. Joyce got the clap last year and had to provide a list of sexual contacts. And they're all here. My life is now complete." Connie raised her hand and Stephanie high-fived it.

"Check out the list. Jeez, there's dozens of them. How many people do we know on it?" Stephanie asked.

"There's Dickie."

"Old news. She ditched him when he lost all the money. Who else?"

"Vinnie. Suddenly a possible answer to the mange question."

"Eeeew, move on."

"Susan Harris' husband, Elmer… Michelle Wilson's husband, Sam… Josie Barr's husband, Tim… Eddie Kuntz… Hey, didn't you work for him on one of your cases?" Connie asked.

"Yup. Oh my God – Randy Briggs! Eeew!"

"And the list goes… Oh my." Connie fell silent.

"What? What have you… Oh."

"Do you see what I see?" Connie murmured.

"If you're referring to the female section of the list, I do see."

"I didn't know that Joyce did girls too."

"Joyce did Vinnie, Randy Briggs, assorted husbands and possibly a few household pets. Should we be surprised that she doesn't just drive stick?" Stephanie asked.

"I guess. I just always saw Joyce as a man-eater, not a carpet-eater."

Stephanie snorted. "So do we know any of these? Oh look, Irene Lowe. She lives one street over from my mother. She's gorgeous, what would she be doing with someone like Joyce?"

"Lowering her standards, just like the guys were."

They spent another entertaining half hour digging into the secrets of Joyce Barnhart's life before the coffee wore off and Stephanie started to yawn again.

Connie eventually noticed that it had gone quiet and looked round to see her friend slumped over the desk asleep. She got up and found Zero in the break room eating a sandwich. He came back with her and carried Stephanie up to the seventh floor, where they left her to sleep on Ranger's bed.

Connie went back down to the search computer and picked up Samuel Williams' file. Somehow digging up the dirt on neighbors was less fun on her own, plus she didn't want to be caught misusing the search programs without Stephanie there. She might as well make herself useful. She typed Samuel's name in and started the first search.

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger got to the bar from where his informant had made the call within thirty minutes, but he was still too late. Gerard had left fifteen minutes before. He was moving around, not staying in any one place too long. He knew that Ranger was looking for him.

What bothered Ranger was that Gerard was allowing himself to be seen at all. The fact that he had shown up at the bonds office, combined with the way he was popping up all over the place then disappearing again, painted a picture of someone who was testing Ranger's boundaries and seeing how far he could go. Having a sick fuck like Gerard thinking that Ranger's boundaries were free to be tested wasn't something that he could allow to happen.

He knew for a fact that Gerard had been responsible for at least three Jane Does turning up at the morgue last year. He'd quietly let it be known at the station who was responsible, but Gerard was never even arrested, let alone charged. And now the son of a bitch was after one of his people.

If Ranger couldn't put Gerard's leash back on via his brother, he was going to do it personally. Too many people's safety relied on the street knowing not to cross him, the most important one being Stephanie's. Thinking about Gerard within a mile of Stephanie made his fists clench and his teeth grind. Gerard should have thought twice before slipping his brother's leash. He was about to find that Ranger's version was a choke chain.

o0o0o0o0o

Bobby was in charge of the office while Tank and Ranger were working the street looking for Gerard. He was going over the duty roster when he got a call from the front desk.

"Bobby, there's a car pulled up across the street watching the building. The driver's a match for Gerard."

"Sit tight. There's a team on the way down."

He grabbed his gun and ran out of his office into the control room. "Security alert, front desk, now!"

Cal and Woody followed him racing down the stairs to the front desk. As they slammed into the lobby to join the Rangeman standing by the front door, the car across the street peeled out and tore off down the street. The red-haired driver saluted them as he passed.

"That was him," Bobby confirmed. "You two grab a car and follow him. I need to check on the girls and call Ranger."

He sprinted back up the stairs to the control room. One concern was dealt with straight away - Connie was standing at the entrance to the search cubby looking curious.

"Where's Steph?" he barked.

"Seventh floor," she answered calmly.

Bobby went into Ranger's office and grabbed the emergency key for the apartment. He sprinted upstairs and let himself into the apartment, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Stephanie asleep on top of the covers on the bed.

He left the apartment quietly and ran back down to the control room to call Ranger.

"Rangeman, Gerard's been sighted here at the office."

"Explain."

"Five minutes ago, parked across the street from the front lobby. He waited for us to see him then took off. Cal and Woody are chasing him. Both the women are here in the building and safe."

Zero cut in from the control desk. "Cal and Woody just reported in. He got away; too much of a lead."

"Ranger-"

"I heard. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger sat down at his desk and leaned back into the chair facing Tank and Bobby.

"He knows I'm looking for him and he's playing," he said. "He could keep this going for weeks before we get a chance to grab him. Plus, now we know that he's deliberately pushing me, we can assume that Steph's at risk as well. We need to change the game."

"What's the plan?" Tank asked.

"We lose. Or at least we let him think so. I want him to get over-confident. I want him to think he's won, so Connie's going to leave town. For a while at least."

"She know that?"

"Not yet."

"I might be able to help with that," Bobby said. "A fax came in this morning while you were both in the wind. The Atlanta team picked up Georgina Warren last night. They're holding her until we advise how we want her brought back."

"That will do. Send one of the men down by car to pick her up. Tell him to take his time. Connie goes as a chaperone. While she's gone, I want her house emptied and a real estate board put up outside it."

"Hal would be the easiest to release from other duties," Tank said.

"Fine, send him. They can leave tomorrow morning."

"What about her family? They'll probably notice."

"I'll deal with them. Steph will be staying in the building while this goes down too. Get an apartment ready for her in case she wants to use it."

"They're all in use with Connie here."

"Then she can use that one if she wants to. Connie won't be back until Gerard's dealt with anyway."

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger went up to the seventh floor apartment as the daylight started to fail. He had Rex's aquarium under one arm and a large bag of Stephanie's clothes in the other hand. He put the bag down in the living room and carried the aquarium to the bedroom, where he put it down quietly on the floor next to the bed.

He reached out a finger and gently ran it down her arm. "Steph, wake up."

Stephanie cracked her eyes open and saw Rex's aquarium. His bottom was just visible poking from the end of the soup can. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, then sighed and stretched. "Rex? What's going on, Ranger."

"Thought you two might like to come and stay with me for a while."

"Why?" she asked sleepily.

"Some things happened today while you were catching up on your sleep."

"Things?"

"Gerard stopped by to say hi."

"Did you kick his ass?"

"Didn't catch it to kick it," he answered. "I will, but I need your help."

"Okay. What do you need?"

"You out of harm's way."

"Again?" Stephanie whined. "Anyway, he's not after me, he's stalking Connie."

"Maybe, maybe not. He's pulling my tail now, Babe. That means he might come after you just for the hell of it."

"So what happens next?"

Ranger outlined the plan that he had made, watching her face carefully the whole time.

"So he's supposed to think that we're scared," she summed up at the end. "Connie leaves town, I go into hiding and you wait for him to relax thinking he's won."

"That's it. Then we take him down."

"I don't like my part."

"I know, but it's important. If you hide, he'll think we're scared that I can't protect you. We're sending him a signal. You could leave town for a while too, if you prefer."

"No, I'll stay here."

"Right here?" he said carefully.

"Are you asking?"

"I'm offering. You can use Connie's apartment in the building if you prefer."

"I'll stay here."

His face didn't change, but the set of his shoulders softened slightly. "You want to go find Connie and tell her to get ready to leave in the morning?" he asked. "Ella should have dinner ready when you get back."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was bouncing with excitement despite the early hour as she climbed into the SUV at six the next morning. Hal was a little calmer but still smiling broadly as he loaded their bags into the back of the SUV and checked that they had shackles on board for bringing the skip back with them.

"Road trip!" she beamed. "Finally, I get out of the building. I'm not even going to ask why he's suddenly giving me good jobs to do instead of torturing me. In fact, get in quick, we need to leave before he changes his mind."

"Relax. I've never known Ranger to change his mind. Change plans with new intel, maybe, but not change his mind."

"Same difference, let's leave in case he gets any new intel."

Hal laughed and saluted. "Yes ma'am." He climbed into the driver's side and started the SUV, leaving Connie to tinker with the radio and find something she liked as they pulled out of the garage and headed for the interstate.

o0o0o0o0o

"So tell me about your family," Connie said as the SUV ate up the miles.

"My family all live in Iowa. Mom, Dad, two sisters. My dad's a mechanic. Mom's a nurse. My sister Hannah has a couple of kids. The other one, Lucy, has three. It makes Christmas a lot of fun."

"You see them much?"

"Not as much as I'd like. I take some vacation time and fly home a couple of times a year."

"Do you have anyone in Trenton?"

"No," he said. "Just work. Some of the guys go out now and then, but I never liked going to clubs like they usually do."

"Sounds lonely," she said.

"It was."

o0o0o0o0o

"Your turn. Tell me about your family," he said.

"My family or The Family?"

"Whichever one you want."

"Well, all my family is in New Jersey. Mom and Dad live a few streets over from me. You've met my younger brother, Tony. He has an apartment just round the corner from me and he drops in a lot. We're connected, but small-time. At the edges. Dad and Tony do stuff. I don't ask; I don't want to know. Mom and I don't get involved. At home we're just like any other family. My dad tells bad jokes and eats all the wrong food when my mom's not looking, my mom worries that we aren't eating enough and that I'm not married off yet, and tries to get me to go to church with her on Sundays. Just normal people."

"Is your mom like you?"

"I look a lot like her, but she's Burg to the bone. Never worked, never wanted to. Just lived for us. I wish I could cook like her sometimes, but it doesn't seem worth cooking properly all the time just for me."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie's eyelids were drooping with the unchanging view of the blacktop and the warm interior of the SUV.

"Tired?" he asked.

She nodded. "Hmmm."

"Tip your seat right back and take your shoes off."

She complied, kicking her sneakers off into the foot-well and wiggling her toes a little.

"Now pass your feet over here."

"What?"

Without taking his eyes off the road, Hal leaned over and reached an arm into the passenger foot-well. He pulled her legs over towards him and settled her feet into his lap. "Now close your eyes."

She wadded up a sweater behind her head and shifted round in her seat to get comfortable. Finally she drifted off to sleep listening to the purr of the engine and feeling the gentle pressure of his hand holding her feet in his lap.

o0o0o0o0o

"Con. Wake up, sweetheart. Time to eat."

"Huh?"

"Food."

She didn't open her eyes. "Not moving. Comfortable."

Hal scraped a fingernail up her left instep.

She yanked her feet away with a squeal of laughter. "Get off!"

"Ticklish. I'll remember that."

"Swine."

"You want this swine to feed you or not?" he asked.

She gave a theatrical sigh. "Well, since I'm awake now…"

"Drama queen. Come on."

They were parked outside a small roadside diner. When they got inside Hal slumped into a chair and rubbed his eyes with both hands.

Connie looked at him with concern. "You look tired."

"I'm fine."

"No. I'll drive after lunch."

"Thanks."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie found that the long straight roads soon got monotonous for someone used to the urban bustle of Trenton.

"Talk to me," she said.

"What about?"

"Anything."

"Now you've put it like that, I don't know what to say."

"I don't mind what. I just don't want to drift off. And I like the sound of your voice. Tell me your best childhood memory, or what your favorite movie is. Anything. Just talk to me."

"Tell you something that will help you stay awake?"

"Yeah."

"I love you."

A car horn blared next to them as she let the SUV drift across into the next lane.

"Con! Watch the road!"

o0o0o0o0o

"You sure you're okay to keep driving?" he asked her.

"I'm sure. Unless you've got any other surprises in store for me. Promise to tell me to pull over first next time?"

"I definitely promise. You only just missed that car."

o0o0o0o0o

"Me too," she said, a while later.

"What?"

"What you said. Me too. I love you too."

"Thank God," he said. "I thought maybe you were so horrified that the only choice was to kill us both."

"No you didn't."

"Okay, maybe not. You've got to admit, though, that was one hell of a reaction."

"Just wait till you see my father's."

"I have to meet your father?" he said in horrified tones. "We need to switch seats. It's my turn to try and kill us both."

o0o00o0o0o

Connie got drowsy after a couple of hours so they swapped seats again and Hal took over the driving.

"So what do we do?" she asked, back with her feet in his lap and the seat tipped back.

"About what?"

"Idiot." She waved a hand at his shoulder, unable to reach it to swat it. "About us."

"We wait till the ten jobs and your obligation to Ranger are over, then we come out."

"You make it sound like we're both gay or something."

"You got a better phrase? I'm open to suggestions."

"Okay, we'll run with coming out. I'll save my suggestions for later, at the hotel." She squinted at the speedometer. " Hey, why have we speeded up? I thought we weren't in a hurry?"


	11. Trial no 9 part 2

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.9 – Part 2

They stopped for the first night at a Hampton Inn in Greensboro.

"You know, it's only four o'clock," Connie pointed out as they walked into the lobby. "We could get a lot further tonight."

"We have plenty of time, and I know you're tired. Might as well get some dinner and plenty of rest. We'll push it harder when we're bringing Warren back."

She raised her eyebrows. "Plenty of rest?"

"Okay, some rest."

He checked them into two separate rooms, which caused her to look at him sharply.

"Company credit card records," he murmured when he saw her look.

After a shower and dinner in a local restaurant, Connie felt a whole lot better and started to wake up again.

"So what is there to do in this hotel?" she asked Hal as they walked back together from the restaurant.

"From the looks of it, not a whole lot, unless you brought a bathing suit with you."

"Never even occurred to me. Damn."

"You could always skinny dip," he said with an innocent expression.

She started a slow burn at the thought. "I don't see the management going a whole bundle on that," she said, trying to keep her voice level, "and Ranger would probably frown on his employees breaking into the pool after hours to skinny dip."

"Possibly not the image of RangeMan he'd like to us to present."

"One day, though–"

Connie squeaked in surprise as Hal suddenly grabbed her hand and hustled her into a nearby alley, where he pressed her into the wall with his body and kissed her hard. Her legs sagged and refused to take her weight and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in and deepening the kiss further.

The moment was abruptly broken as a door into the alley banged opened next to them. Garbage cans rattled as someone took the trash out within a few feet of the spot where they were leaning against the wall.

Connie's face flamed at being caught, and she quickly buried it in Hal's chest where the guy taking the trash out couldn't see it. She could feel Hal's shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter as he bent his own face down to hide it too.

"It's not funny," she hissed when the door had closed again.

"Sorry. But being caught making out in an alley like a couple of teenagers; you've got to admit it's a little bit funny."

"It's embarrassing. And it's all your fault."

"Nope, not taking the blame for this one. You shouldn't have told me you wanted go skinny dipping one day. A man only has so much control."

"You're a Rangeman. Control is supposed to be your middle name."

"What can I say? You broke me."

o0o0o0o0o

When they got back to the hotel, Hal watched in bemusement as Connie carefully inspected both rooms to decide which one they would actually sleep in.

She checked the bathrooms for cleanliness, looked behind the curtains and bounced on each bed a couple of times. She even looked out of both windows.

"Con, it's going to be dark soon. What does it matter what the view is like?"

"I just want to make sure there isn't a dumpster under the window or anything."

"Fine, whatever you say."

But even then she couldn't make up her mind. She went and sat on each bed a couple of times again, and poked her head into each bathroom again. Finally, as she went to open the window of one of the rooms again he cut in.

"Con, they're both exactly the same. Just pick one."

"But I might be missing something. What if one of them has bedbugs and I haven't found them? One more look round."

"Can I offer a humble male suggestion?"

"Go ahead."

He picked her up and threw her into the middle of the bed in the room they were currently in. "This one. Don't move. I'm going to get your bag from the other room."

o0o0o0o0o

When he got back to the room with her bag, Connie was still in the middle of the bed where he had left her, but her arms were folded and she had a glare going that could leave scorch marks.

"I take it I'm in trouble," he said.

"Maybe."

He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, unlacing his boots and pulling them off before lying down on his back next to her with his fingers laced together over his chest. "Gonna shoot me?"

"Possibly."

"Do I get a last request?"

"Go on."

"Can you tell the guys that I got shot single-handedly foiling a bank raid or something? You know, basically lie."

He slanted a sideways look at her.

She was gnawing her lip and looking studiously at the ceiling, but her eyes were crinkling suspiciously at the corners.

"Hey, it's hard to be a tough guy surrounded by ex-Rangers and Seals," he continued. "You owe me a heroic death. And if you could throw yourself over my coffin, sobbing, that would be cool."

He felt her shoulders start to shake.

"And if you could wail something like, 'I'll never find a man that well endowed ever again, I've been ruined forever–"

She burst out laughing. "You're an idiot!"

"But you love me."

"I must be insane!" she announced to the ceiling.

"Too late now. You can't take it back. I'd have to stalk you."

"You're going to stalk a mob princess. You must be dumb."

"It's in my job description. Dumb muscle. That's me."

"Well, since one stalker is definitely enough, I guess I'm stuck with you."

"Well and truly."

She rolled over to lie on top of him, lacing her hands flat on his chest and resting her chin on them so that she could look up at his face. "Mine?"

"Always." He brought his head down to hers and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"If we get bitten to death by bugs tonight, I might still shoot you."

"If we get bitten to death by bugs tonight I'll probably thank you." He pulled her up to him and wrapped his arms around her for a deeper kiss.

She sighed and relaxed bonelessly into him, opening her mouth to let his tongue twine around hers. He reached a hand up to release her hair from the chopstick that she had put in to go to the restaurant and dropped it to the floor beside the bed. "No offensive weapons allowed in the bedroom," he murmured. "You're far too dangerous as it is."

She smiled wordlessly and pressed in closer to him, initiating the kiss herself this time. He reached down to push off her sneakers and started systematically stripping off her tee-shirt and pants between kisses until she was down to soft white cotton underwear. He pushed her up to sit on his lap so that he could sit up and strip his own tee-shirt off, and lifted her away from him long enough to push his cargoes off his hips.

"Socks!" she announced imperiously. "Socks off!"

"Socks?"

"It's a fundamental principle. Any man looks ridiculous wearing just socks. They have to go."

He shook his head and pushed his socks off, letting them fall to the floor at the end of the bed. "Socks off, check."

She went to lie down next to him and he put his hands to her shoulders to stop her, keeping her sitting in his lap with a knee either side of his hips.

She cocked her head to one side, looking at him curiously. "What?"

"Just looking at you."

Straight away she looked uncomfortable. "Don't."

"Why not?"

"I don't like it."

"Then I need to change your mind, because I like looking at you." He leaned forward and kissed her again, combing his fingers through her hair and drawing it away from her face to trail down her back. He moved across to press open mouthed kisses down the column of her neck and across her collar bones, sucking at the flesh where her neck joined her shoulder until she caught her breath and ground her hips against him.

He combed his fingers through her hair again, starting at her temple and raking them through the thick fall of dark hair until he reached the middle of her back. He traced his finger along the line of her bra, looking for the clasp. He couldn't find it.

Her shoulders twitched with a stifled laugh while he continued to look. Finally she leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "Try the front."

He raised his eyebrows and brought his hand around to trace along the front of the bra, following the line where it cupped her breasts and finally finding the front clasp nestled in between them. He released the clasp and watched the bra spring away, releasing her breasts into his hands. "Witch. You did that on purpose."

"Maybe."

"Oh, you have to pay for that." He flipped her over, pressing her back into the mattress, and took her right nipple into his mouth, sucking hard and bringing it to a stiff peak. She gasped and pressed her hand to the back of his neck, asking for more. He moved over and did the same to the other, reaching down to stroke her center at the same time while she whimpered incoherently beneath him.

When she started to writhe frantically against him he stopped and sat up again, resisting all her attempts to pull him back down.

"Say sorry for teasing me with your underwear, or I stop."

She laughed breathlessly and undulated her hips underneath him. "Never."

He reached forward and grabbed her hands quickly, pinning them both over her head with one of his own. "This is your last chance. Say sorry."

Her eyes sparkled with laughter. "Nope. Still not sorry."

"Right. Remember, you asked for it." He reached down with his free hand and tickled her underarms.

She shrieked with laughter, twisting to try to get away from him. "No! NO!"

"Oh no, no mercy." He kept her hands pinned and kept tickling her until she screamed.

There was a sudden banging on the wall and a muffled voice shouted, "Knock it off."

They broke apart immediately and collapsed onto the bed together in silent hysterics. Finally their laughter died away and he pulled her to lie on her side facing him. He ran a hand down her side, pulling her panties down and away until she lay naked with a leg thrown over his hip. He traced lazy circles on her thigh where it stretched across him. "Witch. You cast a spell and I didn't stand a chance, did I?"

"Cuts both ways," she whispered.

He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her as he gently pushed into her. She closed her eyes and pushed back against him, moaning softly in the back of her throat. They started to move together, familiar now, comfortable with each other. He reached between them and pressed against her center in a way that he knew would cause her to sigh with pleasure, and he wasn't disappointed. Their movements became more intense as they moved together and found a faster rhythm. She nipped and sucked at his earlobe and it was his turn to groan, helpless to stop himself pushing into her faster, harder, hoping desperately that she would get there before him, grateful when she keened softly and threw her head back in climax just in time before he came himself.

He kissed her once more before spooning her into him and pulling the covers over them both. "Definitely a witch."

"Hmm." She was already halfway towards sleep. He pulled her a little closer and followed her example.

o0o0o0o0o

"So who are we going to pick up?" Connie asked through a mouthful of toast at breakfast.

"Georgina Warren. She's not one of Vinnie's. Assault with a deadly weapon, three priors for the same thing."

"What was the weapon?"

"Nearest thing to her; this time it was a table leg in a bar. Beat the crap out of some guy with it."

"She must have been strong to use something like that."

Hal passed the mug shot over the table to her. Georgina stared aggressively out of the picture at her. It was a memorable image. She had brown hair cut in a pixie cut and a very un-pixie like body massed underneath it. Her shoulders wouldn't have disgraced the Rangemen and there were distinct biceps bulging from the cap sleeves of her tee-shirt.

"Are you sure these numbers are right?" Connie asked.

"As far as we know. Why?"

"According to this, she's 6'2" tall and weighs 200 lb."

"I feel sorry for the guy. That table leg must really have hurt with that much weight behind it."

o0o0o0o0o

The elevator at RangeMan Atlanta had a mirror on the back wall, and Connie stole surreptitious glances at it as they rode to the control room on the fourth floor. The front desk had been informed of their impending arrival and they had been sent straight up to the control room without an escort.

When they had stopped for lunch earlier in the day, Hal had dragged her into a small clothing store and bought her a plain black polo shirt and black pants to change into. Now, with her new black clothes on and her dark hair pulled back into a braid, she almost didn't recognize herself. Hal bulked large behind her, dominating the space and looking every inch the urban warrior in RangeMan uniform with his gun clearly visible at his side.

When the lift opened into the nerve center of the building she couldn't force herself to step out into the room. It was very much like the Trenton office, occupied by large men with guns and dangerous faces.

"Go on," Hal said behind her.

"Can't," she replied, cotton-mouthed. "I shouldn't be here. Do they know I'm in trouble with Ranger?"

He put a large hand to the small of her back and gave her a gentle shove out into the room. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter. You're here to do a job. Just do it."

A large man with tanned skin and deep lines graven into his face came out of an office off the main room and walked over to them. He held his hand out to Hal. "Sam Wheeler. You Hal?"

"Yeah, here to pick up Warren."

Wheeler turned to look at Connie. "Who's this?"

"Connie Rosolli. Chaperone for us on this trip."

"You employing women in Trenton now?"

"Sometimes."

"Heard the boss put his woman on the staff. I had no idea it was spreading."

Connie would have been affronted at the inference if she hadn't been confused. She looked up at Hal with her furrowed eyebrows and mouthed "His woman?"

He shook his head fractionally without meeting her eyes.

Wheeler wasn't paying any attention to her and missed the exchange. "We have orders from Trenton to put you up here until they're ready for her. What the hell is the deal with this skip? We could have had her on a plane and back in the system yesterday."

Hal shrugged. "No idea. Boss's orders. Where do you want us?"

"I'll have someone take you to the apartments. Nothing for you to do until Trenton calls again.

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie paced restlessly up and down the control room floor watching the monitors and fidgeting with the clip on her RangeMan badge.

"Bombshell, please, sit down." Woody sounded like he was coming to the edge of his tether.

"Okay! Look, I'm sitting." Stephanie sat on one of the desks and started drumming her heels against it. "Happy now?"

"No. That's worse. Please, Bombshell, in the nicest possible way, could you go away?"

"I can't. I said I'd take a turn on monitors since I'm stuck here. I can't leave now I'm on the roster."

"You can. Take a pee break. A really long pee break. A pee break so long you don't come back before shift change. I'll be fine, honest."

"You sure?"

"Positive. I know this is driving you nuts. Just, for the love of God go, before I go nuts too."

"Fine." Stephanie spun on her heel and stomped over towards the offices instead.

"Bobby, I need an update," she announced.

"No change."

"What do you mean, no change? He must have showed himself by now. How much longer do I have to wait?"

Bobby looked like he wished he was anywhere else but in charge of the office. "As long as it takes."

"I can't do this much longer. This is driving me crazy. This is letting him win."

"You know better than that. We're playing a game. You're just pretending to hide."

"I'm still locked up," she pointed out.

"Can't be helped."

"Fine." She stomped out again.

o0o0o0o0o

An hour later, Ranger found her in the gun range, firing at paper targets with fierce determination. He folded his arms and leaned against the door to wait until she noticed him. Finally, when she had emptied the entire clip into the target, she lowered the gun and took her glasses and ear defenders off.

"Using your gun? It must be bad."

"It passes the time. Ranger, there must be another way to do this. You were out all last night looking for him, and all day today. You're going to drop."

"No, I'm not. We'll find him soon." He looked critically at the pattern of holes in the paper target. "Relax your fingers and squeeze the trigger. You're snatching at it."

She re-loaded the gun, put her glasses and ear defenders back on and tried to follow his instructions.

"Better," he commented afterwards. "Want to try something different?"

She shrugged. "If you like."

He unlocked a gun cabinet at the back of the room and pulled out a 12 gauge shotgun.

Stephanie looked at it incredulously. "You are kidding, right?"

"Just give it a try."

He showed her how to open the gun and load the shells.

"Now tuck the stock into your shoulder and put your opposite foot forward. The notches along the top help you to aim; line them up so you can see through both notches then squeeze the trigger. It'll kick hard. Try to lean into it."

He stepped up close behind her as she took the shotgun and cautiously settled it against her shoulder. She lifted it in the direction of the paper target and sighted carefully along the barrel.

When she finally squeezed the trigger, the recoil from the gun knocked her straight off her feet and backwards into Ranger's waiting arms. He stopped her fall but didn't release her, holding her shoulders gently to keep her back to his front.

"Good shot."

There was a large hole through the center of the target.

Stephanie flexed her shoulder gingerly. "You weren't kidding about the kick. That actually hurt."

"It takes some getting used to. Want to try another shot?"

"I think I'll stick with my usual gun. I'd like to keep the use of my arm."

Ranger removed a hand from her shoulder and used it to sweep her hair to away to one side. He waited to see her reaction and was rewarded with a shiver as she reacted silently to his touch. He proceeded to trail a series of kisses down the back of her neck, watching the tiny hairs on the back of her neck lift as she sucked in a sharp breath. Neither of them spoke, and the air in the room crackled with tension.

A cell phone rang, shattering the charged silence. Neither of them moved.

"Babe?"

"Huh?"

"Phone."

Stephanie blinked hard and visibly shook herself. "Right. Phone. Yeah."

"Your pocket?"

She reached into her pocket and found her phone, still ringing insistently.

"Hello?.. Mom, calm down. What's happened?.. Please, Mom, don't cry. Yes, I promise. I'm on my way."

She ended the call and turned to Ranger with a stricken look. "My dad's in the hospital. Mom thinks he may have had a heart attack. I have to go."

"I'll take you."

o0o0o0o0o

They reached the hospital in less than fifteen minutes, breaking most of the city's speeding laws on the way. Stephanie ran in to find her father sitting up in bed and looking a lot better than she had expected. Her mother was sitting by the bed clutching one of his hands in both of hers, and her eyes were red and puffy.

"Daddy?"

He looked up at her and smiled. "Hey, baby," he said gruffly. "No panic. Your mom over-reacted." He squeezed his wife's hand. "I'm fine."

"You are not fine, Frank. I thought you were going to die," Ellen said tearfully. "I was so scared."

Stephanie walked over to her father and wrapped her arms around his neck for a hug. "What happened?" she asked her mother over his shoulder.

"It was your grandmother."

"Insane old bat," her father mumbled under his breath.

"She stole the car and headed out to Atlantic City with Mabel and a couple of friends to play the slots. Except they didn't get there; she crashed the car having a race and rolled it into a ditch."

"Oh my God, are they all okay?"

"Getting treated for bumps and bruises right now. Nothing serious–"

"Shame," her father muttered.

"–but the car is wrecked. The police called your father because it was his car, then all of a sudden he was holding his chest and he couldn't breathe, and I panicked and dialed 911." Ellen stopped to wipe her eyes with a ragged tissue.

"I'm fine," he insisted again.

"They think it was a panic attack, but they ran some tests to be sure it wasn't a heart attack. We're waiting for the results."

"You want me to wait with you?" Stephanie asked.

Her mother looked grateful. "Please." She looked up to where Ranger was standing by the door. "Thank you for bringing her."

He nodded silently, making no attempt to leave the room.

Ellen looked at Stephanie in confusion.

"It's complicated, Mom. We'll both wait with you."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie slumped into the passenger seat of the Cayenne and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Shit. Who'd have grandmothers?"

"Sold mine a long time ago," Ranger said as he drove back towards Haywood.

She snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Finally stopped believing everything you hear?"

"Somewhere along the way."

"Damn. How am I going to scare you now?"

Stephanie yawned. "I'm sure you'll think of something. And you still scare everybody else."

"Guess I'll settle for that."

Ranger's cell rang, and Stephanie snapped out of her torpor and watched him with wide eyes as he answered.

"Yo… On my way."

"What?" she asked.

Ranger put his foot down and the Cayenne speeded up. "He's been spotted. I need to get you back to the building and get over there."

"There's no time for that. Just go."

"No."

"Damn it, Ranger, how many times have you missed him?" Stephanie demanded. "You don't know if he's buying it or if he'll be gone again in twenty minutes. There's no time to waste trying to hide me. We're both armed, and I thought you trusted me. Let's go."

"This is a bad idea." Ranger swung the Cayenne around and took off in a new direction. "You shouldn't be involved in this."

"I'll stay in the car if it makes you happy, just as long as we catch this son of a bitch."

o0o0o0o0o

They pulled into a space near the front of the Ship's parking lot and Ranger cut the engine. "Stay here."

Tank emerged from another SUV that was already parked at the back and Ranger got out to meet him. They conferred quietly for a few minutes before Ranger got back in.

"Now what?" Stephanie asked.

"Now we wait."

o0o0o0o0o

Twenty minutes later a huge man walked out of the back door and into the parking lot. Shaggy red hair and a beard identified him as Gerard.

Ranger pushed Stephanie's head down. "Stay down out of sight." He got out of the Cayenne silently and stalked towards Gerard as the big man pulled out a set of keys and headed towards a gray car.

Stephanie peeped up over the dashboard and saw Tank doing the same thing. The two men closed on him silently, and she held her breath, almost afraid to take a breath in case he somehow heard it.

Then they were next to him, and she watched in horror as Ranger grabbed Gerard from the back and twisted his neck sharply. Gerard dropped silently towards the ground, where Tank caught him. Between them they lifted the enormous body and threw it into the back of the gray car as if it weighed nothing. She watched as the head lolled sickeningly backwards.

The whole scene unrolled in terrible, deathly silence, and Stephanie could hear her own blood pounding in her ears. Tears streamed unnoticed down her cheeks, but she couldn't move or look away.

Tank got into the gray car with the body, pulled the car out of the lot and disappeared without looking in her direction. The SUV followed a moment later, driven by some unknown person.

Ranger got back into the Cayenne, making her start with shock. She hadn't even seen him move.

He didn't say anything, just started the engine and pulled it smoothly out of the parking lot.

When they were a couple of miles down the road and clear of the scene he pulled over and let the engine idle. "You didn't stay down, did you?" he said quietly as he looked out through the windshield.

Stephanie shook her head silently, not trusting herself to speak.

He closed his eyes and looked down, knuckles white where his hands gripped the steering wheel. "Fuck."

He turned towards her and saw the tears staining her cheeks. He reached out a finger to wipe them away, and she flinched, very slightly. He saw the tiny movement and pulled his hand back sharply. He regarded her without speaking for a moment before turning back to face the road again. Putting the vehicle into drive, he pulled the Cayenne back out onto the road.

"I'll take you to your parents. Your mother will probably need the company anyway. We'll talk tomorrow."

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger didn't really expect to see Stephanie the next day. When she tapped quietly on his office door at ten o'clock and walked in, looking pale and shaky, he was hard pressed to conceal his shock.

"You didn't have to come in."

She sat in a corner of the couch under the window, pulled her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms round them. "You said we'd talk today. So talk."

"I'm sorry you saw. You weren't meant to."

"I think I'm getting that now. Keeping me in the building was never just about protecting me was it?"

"It was. You just didn't know what you were being protected from."

"You," she said quietly.

"From things you didn't need to know."

"But now I do." Her voice was almost inaudible.

"I tried, Babe. I sent you back to Morelli, I tried to stay away from you. I make no apologies for what I am or where I am, but I didn't want to pull you down into the dark with me."

She got up and walked over to where he sat at the desk, keeping her arms wrapped tightly around herself. He kept his hands flat on the top of the desk, not wanting to see her flinch from him again.

She took a deep breath. "I don't know what I thought would happen last night, but it wasn't that. I knew what you were, but I never really saw it before." She paused. "I need some time to think. I'll be around, but I need a little space, okay?"

He nodded, and she left his office as quietly as she had come in.


	12. Trial no 9 part 3

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.9 – Part 3

Stephanie sat on the brown couch in the bonds office watching Lula, who was, somewhat half heartedly, doing the filing. "Tank says that Connie should be home some time tomorrow."

"Thank God," Lula said fervently. "The temp Ranger's got working here ain't no fun at all. You believe she actually makes me do all the filing?"

"That must suck for you. You know, it not being your job and all."

Lula gave her a measuring look. "Feeling cranky today, are we?"

"Lula, how well do you know Tank? I mean really know him," Stephanie asked.

"Well enough. He's a good man. Better than I ever thought I might deserve."

"You love him?"

"All the way crazy about him."

"No matter what he might have done in his life?"

Lula looked at her keenly. "There's something eating you, girl. Reckon you saw something you didn't like."

"Ranger–"

Lula held a hand up. "Stop. Stop right there. Don't tell me. What makes you think I wanna know?"

"But–"

"But nothin'. Maybe it ain't your business to tell."

Stephanie stopped. "Okay. Maybe I saw something I wasn't supposed to see. And maybe it shocked me, and maybe I can't think the same way about the person involved any more."

Lula put the pile of files down and sat down next to her on the couch. She fixed her with a gimlet stare. "Now, don't take this the wrong way, 'cause you're my friend. Hell, you saved my life. I owe you big, so I'm gonna tell you the truth and I want you to think real hard about it.

"Now the fact is, this ain't your world, not really. You weren't born in it, and you don't have to stay in it. If you want nice easy choices between right and wrong, you can go back to Officer Hottie, or someone like him. Make your momma happy.

"If you stay here, it ain't so clean and easy. You gotta look a little bit deeper and ask why people did what they did, not just what they did. That's the judge of right and wrong for us: the reasons why.

"I was a 'ho for a lotta years. I broke the law every damn day. Did that make me a bad person? Hell, all I know is that I did what I had to do to eat."

Stephanie looked unhappy. "It's not that easy, Lula."

"I never said it was. But ask yourself what would have happened if they hadn't done what they did. Ask yourself the reasons why. And when Connie gets back, maybe ask her how she can still love her daddy and her brother, knowin' what she knows."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling in one of the RangeMan Atlanta apartments when there was a tap at the door. "Come in!"

Hal walked in. "Still hiding?"

"I hate this place. They aren't used to women being here, and it shows. They all look at me like I should be cleaning the floors or something."

He sat down next to her on the bed, and leaned over her for a kiss.

"And that's another thing," she carried on. "I can't wait to get back out on the road. I know I said I wanted us to keep a low profile since they already think Steph's just Ranger's piece of tail, but it's pissing me off. I know we're a secret in Trenton too, but it's different there with Steph and the guys helping us to cover up."

"Then I have some good news. Tank just called. We've been cleared to bring Warren back."

"Yes!" She sprang up from the bed and threw her arms around him. "Let's go home!"

o0o0o0o0o

Back in her black shirt and pants, Connie followed Hal and Wheeler down to the holding cells to collect Georgina Warren.

The woman was even more imposing in person than she was in her photograph, and the statistics recorded in her file hadn't been a mistake. She stood just a little shorter than Hal and her large body was bulky with muscle. Her hair was cut in a short crop, and she wore a man's tee-shirt, blue jeans and Cat boots. She looked a lot like a lumberjack. She was already in the process of having her hands cuffed behind her back when they arrived at the cell.

"Good morning, Ms Warren," Wheeler said to her. "I'm pleased to inform you that your stay at Hotel RangeMan is over, and it's time for you to become a pain in somebody else's ass. Mr Peterson and Ms Rosolli, here, will be escorting you back to New Jersey. Be a good girl for them, if you are actually a girl, and I hope that we never meet again."

He turned to Hal and Connie. "She's all yours. We'll walk her down to your vehicle for you."

Hal just nodded. Connie followed his lead and remained silent as they followed Wheeler and his men as they escorted the FTA down to the basement car park. They watched as she was shackled to the floor bars of the SUV before getting in themselves and pulling out of the parking lot.

o0o0o0o0o

With a skip secured in the back, the atmosphere couldn't have been more different than the one on the journey out. This time the seats stayed upright, feet remained on the floor and conversation was non-existent.

Connie started to chafe within the hour. Hal hadn't spoken at all, choosing instead to project the atmosphere of menace that all the Rangemen appeared to be able to turn on for the occasion. She could see the point, but it was going to feel like a long journey.

She kept sneaking glances over her shoulder at the woman in the back, who just stared stoically straight ahead through the windshield and didn't acknowledge her at all. Connie sighed. It was going to feel like a very long journey.

o0o0o0o0o

Finally, when Connie had lost track of the number of times she had peeked over her shoulder at Georgina, one of her peeks showed the woman mountain with her eyes closed, asleep.

"It doesn't seem right, keeping her hands cuffed behind her back for the whole journey," she murmured quietly to Hal. "That's got to be really uncomfortable."

"Safety precaution. If her hands are free there's nothing to stop her from hitting the driver and killing us all."

"Even so. She's been no trouble so far."

"Wheeler thought she was trouble."

"Don't get me started on Wheeler. I can't believe the way he talked to her. It was uncalled for. Wheeler is an asshole."

"That he is. Okay, first rest stop I'll see what I can do to make her more comfortable. Maybe we can use a couple of extra pairs of cuffs to give her a little more room to move."

o0o0o0o0o

"Miss Warren." Connie shook her shoulder gently. "Miss Warren, wake up. We're taking a break."

"I'm awake," she rumbled. "Have been all along."

Hal opened the door to the back, released the leg shackles securing her to the floor of the SUV and helped her to climb out into the fresh air.

They were outside yet another roadside diner. Connie regarded it glumly. "I'm getting kind of tired of these. There's only so much diner food I can eat. I can feel my ass spreading just standing here."

Hal was still in scary RangeMan mode and didn't respond. Georgina was equally silent.

"I'm going to end up talking to the furniture at this rate," Connie muttered under her breath. "I might stand more chance of getting an answer."

They went in and sat down. Hal rearranged Georgina's cuffs so that her hands were shackled in front of her and ordered her a sandwich.

She sat there stolidly and made no move to eat it, just staring at the back of someone's head at the next table.

Connie and Hal ate their own sandwiches in silence, Connie watching Georgina watching nothing. When they had finished, Hal moved to get up and reached over to take Georgina's arm.

"Hold on," Connie interrupted. "She hasn't eaten anything."

Hal shrugged. "She's had her chance. We need to go."

"But we've been on the road for five hours. She needs to eat something." She turned to Georgina. "Come on, you must need something to eat."

Georgina just looked at her.

"Oh come on, somebody talk to me! Georgina, you're going to get sick if you don't eat, and we have a long way to go this afternoon. Just eat something."

Hal muttered something under his breath about Burg women and feeding people, and she glared at him briefly before bringing her attention back to Georgina.

"I'm not your child," Georgina said slowly.

"What?"

"You heard. My welfare is not your problem. Leave me alone."

"Of course it is. It's why I'm here."

"Bullshit. You're here in case I cry rape against the man mountain here. You don't care if I live or die. No-one does. So just back off."

Connie stared at her incredulously, not quite believing that she had called Hal a man mountain. He had barely two inches and twenty pounds on her. Either of them would block all the light from the doorway with no trouble.

"No. I'm here to make sure you're looked after. So you will be looked after, if I have to force feed you while he holds you at gunpoint. Now eat, or we do this the hard way."

Georgina turned her head to look at Hal. He stared back at her impassively. Neither of them moved.

"I give up," Connie complained. She waved at the waitress. "Excuse me. Can we get this wrapped to go?"

o0o0o0o0o

When the waitress returned with the wrapped sandwich they got up to leave.

"What are we going to do about a bathroom break?" Connie asked Hal.

"I'll wait here with her. You go. Check out how secure the women's bathroom is at the same time. Know what kind of thing you're looking for?"

"Escape routes, possible weapons, that sort of thing?"

"You've got it. We'll decide what to do when you get back."

Connie went into the ladies' room and used the facilities. There was an openable window high in the wall that she didn't think somebody the size of Georgina would be able to get through. There was also a mop and bucket set in a cleaner's closet, but she wasn't sure how much damage anyone could do with them. Overall, she decided that she was probably safe letting Georgina go long enough to use the bathroom. It sure as hell beat handcuffing the two of them together and trying to stay the other side of the door to the stall.

She went out to collect Georgina and took her inside, leaving Hal standing guard at the door. Once they were inside she released the handcuffs and leaned back against the basins with her arms folded.

"So, come on, Georgina. What gives?"

"You're escorting me back to jail and you have to ask me that question?" Georgina asked grimly.

"Doesn't explain to me why you want to be as miserable as possible all the way there."

"That's my business, not yours."

"Wrong. I'm going to be sitting in a car with you for the next five or so hours. That makes it my business, so talk to me."

"Leave me alone."

"Oh for the love of God! What, are you starving yourself to death with a broken heart or something?" Connie asked, exasperated.

"Yes."

"Oh." Connie stopped. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

Connie walked to the bathroom door and stuck her head round it. "Hal?"

"Yeah?"

"We might be a little while, okay?"

He looked at her, concerned. "You got your gun?"

"In my pocket. Give me ten minutes? Emergency girl talk."

He nodded. "Shout if she causes any trouble."

"Will do." She pulled her head back in and turned back to Georgina. "Now imagine we have a big jug of margaritas in front of us and tell me all about it."

Georgina nodded reluctantly. "My girlfriend sold me out. She was the one I had the fight over in Trenton. We were so good together; I thought she was the one. Then I caught her in this bar with some guy all over her and they both laughed at me and I lost it. I hit him with the first thing I could find."

"The table leg."

"Yeah. I was mad, and he was laughing, and the table was right there, and next thing I know the table was in pieces and the leg was in my hand. Anyway, someone called the cops and I got arrested. I jumped bail and came down here to my aunt's, stayed for a couple of weeks while I tried to figure out what to do next. Then, all of a sudden, she's calling me and wanting to get back together and stuff and wanting to know where I am, so I tell her. Next thing I know, the men in black are at the door and they grab me and take me to their own private jail. You know the rest."

Connie sighed. She was firmly on the side of the bondsmen when it came to bail jumpers, but Georgina's story still sucked. "If it's any consolation, most skips get turned in by friends and relatives. It's not just you. And she sounds like a real bitch. You're probably well shot of her."

To Connie's horror, Georgina started to cry quietly. It was like watching a mountain slowly shake and crumble. "I thought she was the one," she sniffed.

Connie looked on helplessly, not sure what to do. Finally she patted her on the shoulder. "There, there. I'm sure there's someone a whole lot better for you, out there somewhere."

The human contact seemed to push Georgina over the edge. She threw her arms around Connie and started to cry in earnest. Connie bit back a squeak as she was engulfed by the enormous woman. She continued to pat her shoulder helplessly, not sure what else to do.

Hal poked his head through the door with his gun at the ready and did a double take when he saw Connie barely visible past the bulk of Georgina wrapped round her.

Connie caught the movement despite her limited view. "Out," she mouthed silently, pointing to the door as she continued to comfort Georgina.

He raised his eyebrows and showed her five fingers to indicate five minutes before disappearing again.

Georgina's wails had turned to great, racking sobs. "Who's going to want me?" she wept. "She didn't want me, no-one wants me. Look at me! Why would anyone want someone that looks like me?"

"You look fine just the way you are," Connie said firmly.

"Really?" Georgina sniffed. "You think I look okay?"

"Of course I do."

"You're not just making it up?"

"I wouldn't do that. Now, do you think you could use the bathroom and eat your sandwich in the car? Because Hal's going to be in here in a minute wondering what's keeping us."

o0o0o0o0o

Hal wished that Connie had left well enough alone and let Georgina 'Call me George' wallow in her personal pit of misery.

'George' was pathetically grateful for a sympathetic ear. He'd been quite happy with her stony silence, but now the floodgates were opened and she chattered relentlessly without pausing for breath. He felt like he was stuck in the middle of the pajama party from hell.

"So, Connie, do you think I should grow my hair long? Because I was big when I was in high school and I figured out pretty early I was never going to be a cheerleader, so it seemed like the best thing not to even try to be pretty, because you know how bitchy those pretty girls can be if they even get a sniff of you wanting to be like them. I just went the other way and thought, well if I'm stuck with a body like a boy then I might as well dress like a boy, no point in me ever trying to fit into a size eight, I could starve for a month and I'd still be a size twelve, and I put on muscle real easily, and I found out that if I looked scary then no-one ever dared to bitch me out so I just carried on that way and I know I like girls but that doesn't mean that I'm not a girl. I mean it would be nice to be pretty even if I don't know where to start, it's been a long, long time since I even tried. Do you think I should maybe get some cosmetics and try them out? You don't think I'd look dumb do you? Because I don't want to look dumb, and I don't want to look like a house wearing a dress. Maybe I'm getting all carried away for nothing, I mean you said you liked me just as I am, right? And you said there was someone out there for me somewhere. I just wonder, do you think I should go out looking for them or is that too desperate? Maybe I should just wait for them to come to me, but then what if I meet them and they don't even notice me, I mean I have to put some effort in, right? Connie? Right?"

"Well, I think you need to put some effort in. You need to feel good about yourself. My friend Lula knows some good stores for larger women back in Trenton that you could check out. You should try some tailored styles, maybe some color. And the Macy's cosmetics girl is amazing. I bet if you went in and asked, she'd put a starter kit together for you, and show you how to use it too. She'd love it. You should try some scent too. I bet you'd look real pretty."

"Do you think I should try to meet someone new too? What kind of effort do you think I should put in for that? I mean I don't want to look needy or anything, do you think that lonely hearts is too lame? And do you think it would be better to do the ad or to answer someone else's? Maybe I should lie, I heard everybody lies, like if I said that I was generous or something that's better than saying that I'm really big, because if everybody lies and I tell the truth and say that I'm big then they'll think that by the time they take my lie into account maybe I look like Godzilla and maybe they won't even give me a chance, and I really want a chance. Connie, I deserve a chance, right? Connie?"

"Of course, everybody deserves a chance. There's someone out there for everyone. No way should you be settling for someone who hooks up with other people and laughs at you."

"Maybe I should do one of those video ones so that people could see what I look like and get that out of the way first, but then what if people saw my video and they were scared off straight away? I don't think I could stand that, if no-one even wanted to meet me. What if I did a video and I didn't even get a single contact? I would want to die if that happened."

Hal thought that he would be quite willing to help with that. His jaw was starting to hurt from clenching his teeth.

And Connie just kept on helping, oblivious. "I think that you should just concentrate on being happy for a while without needing anybody else. I mean, some of the best things just happen out of the blue when you least expect it."

She looked warmly at him. This was probably the point where he was supposed to smile goofily and share the love. She could whistle for it. 'George' was still a fugitive and he still had the job of bringing her in. If Connie wanted to hug the world that was up to her; he was a Rangeman. He just wanted to hug her. Except that he couldn't in front of the damned skip. His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel and he drove a little bit faster.

o0o0o0o0o

They had been on the road for five hours since lunch when Connie raised the subject of sleeping arrangements.

"Are we going to stop overnight again and carry on in the morning?"

'George' was all for it. "Hey, that would be great, it would be just like being roomies. You could show me how to use cosmetics and stuff.."

Connie looked at Hal cautiously. "I guess so. I know she's okay now and all, but we shouldn't really leave her in a room on her own."

"I'll need a toothbrush and things. They didn't give me anything to bring with me."

"Not necessary," Hal cut in. "I'm not tired. We'll press on."

"Are you sure? There's at least another three hours of driving in front of us." Connie was the picture of concern.

"I'm fine," he gritted, and drove a little faster again.

o0o0o0o0o

"All right, enough," Connie said firmly. "Hal, you're starting to drift across the lanes. We need to stop."

"It's only another couple of hours. I'm fine."

"No, you're not. And I'm not; I'm hungry. George is hungry. Surely you're hungry too?"

"'George' is sleeping the sleep of the blissfully ignorant, and I want to get home and get rid of her more than I want to eat."

"But why? She's fine now. She's like a different person now she's relaxed."

Hal thought about pointing out that he had preferred the original George, but decided against it. "McDonalds. We'll stop at the next McDonalds on our route. Will that do?"

She grimaced. "It'll have to."

o0o0o0o0o

They pulled into a McDonalds and got out to stretch their legs before going into the restaurant.

Hal noticed with intense irritation that George was following Connie round like a lovesick puppy as she walked a brisk lap of the parking lot. He fought the urge to go and pick her up and put her down further away from Connie's personal bubble. If fact, as far as he was concerned, Connie's personal bubble wasn't nearly large enough for his liking. 'George' needed to be a good foot further away from his woman.

"Food!" he called out sharply and walked into the restaurant without waiting for them.

They ordered their food and sat down at one of the plastic tables. 'George' plunked herself down next to Connie, leaving Hal to carry the tray of food over to the table.

Hal took the seat opposite, and proceeded to wolf down a Big Mac and fries at a speed that left Connie staring at him with her jaw hanging, her own meal barely started.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"Not hungry, huh?"

"Just keen to get going again. You sure you don't want to eat that as we drive?"

She snorted. "Yeah, like you want Ranger to be able to smell burgers and fries in the SUV when we get back."

"Who's Ranger?" George asked from her seat next to Connie.

"Our boss. Makes Hal here look like a fluffy bunny."

"Jeez. Scary thought."

Yeah, Hal thought. Be afraid. And don't think I didn't notice how fast you moved to make sure you got the seat next to her.

"Are you two going to eat your food or what?"

"All right! We're eating." Connie made a show of picking her burger up. "And I'm driving the last leg, too. You need to sleep."

o0o0o0o0o

Hal tried to sleep in the passenger seat while Connie drove towards Trenton, but every time George opened her mouth he snapped awake, his nerves strung tight with irritation.

The woman had even shyly asked Connie if she dated much back in Trenton. By the time they finally reached the Trenton city limits, he was about ready to reach into the back and throw her out of the moving SUV. It was about 11 pm but he insisted they went straight to the police station to take George in anyway.

Connie had finally worked out that something was wrong, and was sneaking concerned looks his way, but he had brushed off every question, just sitting upright in his seat with his eyes fixed firmly on the road ahead. As they pulled in and stopped in the police station parking lot he sagged back into his seat.

"Con, you want to take her in?" he asked. "I think I've had it."

"Sure. George, come on out. We're here." She had stopped bothering with cuffs after the McDonalds stop. She didn't expect any trouble. On the contrary, George was looking distinctly upset at the prospect of losing her new found friend.

Connie escorted her through the back door and over to the custody desk to be booked in.

"Connie, we're okay, right?" George asked anxiously. "Everything's going to be okay?"

"Of course it is. Just don't jump any more bail."

"I wanted to ask… " George took a deep breath. "Would you come and see me in jail?"

"I'm not sure that's–"

"_Please. Y_ou've been so nice to me. I don't think anyone's been nice to me like that before."

"There are lots of nice people in the world, you know, if you let them in. But okay, I'll come and see you if–"

Georgina wrapped her in an enormous bear hug and lifted her right off the ground.

"George," she squeaked. "Air!"

"Hey! Put her down!" The custody officer was up and shouting, concerned that a skip was out of control.

"Put me down, George."

George put her down as she was about to be rushed by three or four cops. They backed off when it became clear that no-one was in any danger.

As the world came back into view, Stephanie was revealed standing by the custody desk.

"Steph? What are you doing here this time of night?"

Stephanie shrugged. "Skip, same as you."

"On your own? I thought Ranger had you in the building while… " Connie trailed off, not wanting to continue while standing in the station.

"Change of plans," Stephanie said quietly. "I'll catch up with you tomorrow when you've had some sleep."

She pocketed her body receipt and walked out into the parking lot.

Connie watched her leave with a speculative look before turning back to the custody officer and collecting her own body receipt.

o0o0o0o0o

Hal was just about awake when she got back to the SUV. He looked terrible. She leaned over the console to wrap her arms around his neck and clung on tight. "You're an asshole," she mumbled into his neck.

"Sorry." He wrapped his arms around her as well.

"I know she was a pain in the ass, but she was just so sad. I couldn't bear it. All locked up behind that scary front and daring anyone to give a damn about her."

"She liked you too much."

"I liked her."

"Not the same way. I mean she _liked_ you, liked you."

"Yeah, and like I said, I liked her too."

He sighed. It was too late at night for conversations like this. "Didn't you ever get a crush on someone?"

"Oh, don't be so–" She sat up suddenly, eyes wide. "No! You can't seriously mean…"

He nodded. "I think she was all yours if you wanted her." He reached out to pull her back into the hug.

"Shut up," she said into his neck, "and let's go home."


	13. Trial no 10

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Trial no.10

"We're back!" Connie called as she and Hal walked into the control room. "Guys?"

The control room was like a morgue. Cal and Woody nodded to them from the monitors without speaking. There would normally be a couple of other people around doing various things, but this time no-one else was in the control room at all.

Connie looked at Hal with concern and he shrugged and held his hands out to his sides.

"I don't know any more than you."

They went to the break room and found Zero looking in the refrigerator.

"Zero, what's going on, man?" Hal asked.

Zero looked grim. "Something went down, but no-one's talking. Steph isn't in the building any more. I've only seen her for a couple of minutes, when she was reporting in on her current skips, and she barely said two words to anyone. Ranger looks ready to kill someone and Tank's not saying anything. If you guys aren't on duty I'd get the hell out of here if I were you."

"Thanks."

They left him to his food and went to find Tank.

o0o0o0o0o

They found Tank in the gym lifting free weights, his face grim with concentration.

He looked up when he saw them but didn't stop. "Warren back in the system?"

"Got the body receipt right here," Hal answered. "What's going on, Tank?"

"Nothing." The big man's face was impassive. "Connie, you're cleared to leave the building and go back to the bonds office until further notice. We'll be in touch at some point about your last job. Hal, you start surveillance with Eddie tomorrow, late shift. The assignment details are in your email."

"But–" Connie started, stopping when Hal shook his head slightly at her.

"Understood." He jerked his head for her to follow him out of the gym.

"Go home," he said when they were outside in the corridor. "I don't know what's going on, but you're better off not here. I'll come over when I can."

"Do you want to stay with me?"

He looked regretful. "Better not until we know what's got the guys so jumpy."

"I saw Steph in the police station dropping off a skip. Something was really wrong, but she wasn't talking about it either."

"She's probably the only one that can tell us. I can guarantee nobody will want to be on Ranger's radar at all, let alone ask him about it."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie called Stephanie in the morning.

"Steph, are you busy? I need to talk to you about the Atlanta trip," she lied.

Stephanie's voice sounded subdued when she answered. "Sure. Whatever you need."

"Want to come round my house tonight? We can celebrate my freedom at the same time. Have a mini housewarming now I'm allowed home."

"Yeah," Stephanie said dully. "Let's do that. Eight o'clock?"

"See you then."

o0o0o0o0o

It was a strange evening. Stephanie said all the right words in all the right places, but she seemed slightly distracted, not quite focused on the conversation.

Connie had opted to keep the alcohol flowing freely in the hope that Stephanie would eventually loosen up and start talking, and they were coming to the end of their second bottle of wine. Of course, there was a downside to that strategy. While Stephanie gradually started to relax and act more like her normal self, Connie was soon three sheets to the wind and almost forgot that there was a strategy at all.

"Why me?" she railed, waving her glass wildly in the air. The white wine in it came dangerously close to leaving the glass and flying over the back of the couch. "Why me? That's all I want to know. It's not a hard question. Why me?"

"You sound like my mother."

"Okay, that's it, give me your gun. I have to shoot myself." Connie picked up her purse and started scrabbling inside it.

Stephanie took the purse from her and kicked it around the far side of the couch where Connie couldn't reach. "It's just a coincidence. You're thinking about this too much."

"No, it can't be. I've spent most of my life being normal. Okay, nearly normal; I can't help who I'm related to. The occasional date, no-one special, no-one you'd look twice at. Then, suddenly, here they come. One human mountain after another! Do I give off mountain pheromones? Do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says 'The bigger they are the better I like them'? There must be something! Why the sudden continental drift in my direction?"

"Try to think of it as flattering. I mean, that last one really fell for you, hard. I saw her saying goodbye at the station. That was hearts and flowers and Cupid's arrow sticking square out of her ass."

Connie took a large slug of her wine. "Yeah well, Cupid's not the only one that can shoot straight. If I ever get my hands on Cupid, he's a dead man."

As soon as she said 'dead man', shutters slammed down on Stephanie's face, and she was right back to being silent and uncommunicative.

Connie sighed. "Damn it, Steph, What's wrong? Just tell me. I told you about George, which I still might regret. Please, talk to me?"

Stephanie just looked miserable. "I don't think I can. Lula already told me I have no business talking about it. I think I have to deal with this one on my own."

"Can't I help without knowing the details? I know it's bad. The whole of RangeMan is hiding from Ranger right now."

Stephanie looked like she might cry. "Lula said that I should ask you about your dad and Tony."

Connie winced. "Don't ask me for information. I can't talk about them. I won't."

"Not that. As I said, Lula already read me the riot act on that." Stephanie took a deep breath. "How do you do it? How do you deal with knowing such terrible things about someone that you don't know what to think any more? Because I'm lost." Her voice started to tremble. "I'm so badly lost that I feel like maybe I'll never get back again."

Connie put her glass down and pulled Stephanie into a hug. She could feel Stephanie shaking slightly. "It's simple," she said softly. "Not easy, but simple. I love them. Whatever they are."

Stephanie started to sob quietly, and Connie felt her own eyes start to fill with tears. "Shit, you're going to make me cry too."

"Sorry," Stephanie whispered.

"Shh. It'll be okay. It has to be, in the end."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie settled back into the bonds office routine for the second time. She grudgingly admitted to herself that Ranger's temp had done a good job of managing the office in her absence, but she still feel the need to re-claim her territory and promptly reorganized the store room. It took her nearly a week, but now it was immaculately organized from top to bottom. There was something deeply satisfying about pulling everything out and starting from scratch.

Vinnie was quiet, and seemed content to ignore the fact that she had ever been away. Connie was quite happy with that. It saved her from having to explain anything she didn't want to.

The temp seemed to have done a good job on Lula too. The heaps of files that usually sat on top of the filing cabinets were conspicuously absent, although Lula still had her usual 'we'll see' attitude to timekeeping. It was already ten o'clock and she still hadn't arrived. After all, some things needed to stay the same.

Just as Connie was thinking about calling Lula to tell her to swing by the Tasty Pastry on her way in, she walked in through the back door. She jerked her head at Vinnie's door. "He in?"

Connie shook her head wordlessly.

"Good." Lula flung herself down on the couch. "'Cause I reckon I know what's tearin' Steph to pieces."

"Go on."

"I saw Jackie last night. Word is that nobody's seen or heard from Gerard for about a week. A lot of the girls are celebratin' where his brother can't hear. Nobody knows anything for sure, but a few people puttin' two and two together and comin' up with Ranger."

Connie sucked in a sharp breath. "Shit. That makes a whole lot of sense. It would explain why Tank let me go home as soon as we got back from Atlanta."

"So my next question is, why is Steph so cut up this time? It ain't no different to Abruzzi, and she bounced right back from that one."

"I'm wondering if she saw it, but then I can't believe that Ranger would have let her get that close."

Lula snorted. "Oh yeah, 'cause she does what he tells her to do every damn time she finds trouble."

Connie nodded thoughtfully. "Hard to witness a murder and not be changed by it."

"I just know she ain't right. She's workin', but she ain't our Steph."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie was picking up a mid-range skip. Gary Dawson had been charged with assault and rape, and if Ranger knew she had the file he would have either taken it off her there and then or assigned at least two men to go with her.

She hadn't bothered mentioning to anyone that she had upgraded the value of the skips she was picking up. She collected all the files and passed the high bonds on to Tank, so it was a simple matter to just not hand over some of the mid-range files. No-one asked and she didn't tell.

She'd had a tip that Gary was holed up at his girlfriend's, assuming that no-one would think of looking for him there. She couldn't quite work out how it was that so many of them did the exact same thing, each of them thinking that they'd found the perfect hiding place. They did it so frequently that the girlfriend's was usually one of the first places she tried.

Poor, stupid Gary hadn't even given any thought to what his girlfriend might think about him being charged with a sex crime; she'd jumped at the chance to text Stephanie the next time he came round.

So here she was, looking at a tatty first floor apartment with all the curtains drawn despite it being late morning. She rang the bell and waited.

Gary's girlfriend opened the door and let her in silently. She indicated the bedroom with a jerk of her head and stepped back into the kitchen out of the way.

Stephanie walked quietly into the bedroom, and wrinkled her nose at the smell of stale air and unwashed bedding. Gary was snoring in the middle of the bed.

She smiled. Sometimes it was almost too easy. She moved to the side of the bed with her stun gun out and tapped him gently on the shoulder. "Gary."

His eyes snapped open and she hit him with the stun gun before he had a chance to move. He slumped back onto the bed.

"Too easy." Stephanie pulled out her cuffs and busied herself cuffing him while he was unconscious. Once he was secured, she took a moment to open a window and let some fresh air in before settling down to wait for him to wake up.

o0o0o0o0o

When Gary came round with a groan, Stephanie was sitting in a chair beside the bed waiting for him. She gave him a wide grin.

"Good morning, Gary. Time to go back to jail."

He flailed his arms a little as he encountered the cuffs and slumped on the bed with another pathetic groan.

"Yeah, sorry about that. The dizziness and the heaves will wear off in a while. They just keep you nice and weak while I help you to the car." She let him thrash helplessly a couple more times before continuing, "It's not nice feeling weak and helpless, is it, Gary? You might want to think about that on your way back to jail. Now, let's go, shall we?"

She got to her feet and helped him swing his shaking legs to the floor before grabbing his shoulder and walking him slowly out to the SUV.

o0o0o0o0o

When Stephanie went into the office to make her report, Tank was waiting for her.

"I need to talk to you in my office, Bombshell."

"Why? Is there a problem with my work?"

"No."

"Then why do you need to talk to me?" She took a step toward the door.

"I talked to Lula. You're avoiding her."

"Been busy," she answered calmly.

"She's worried about you. We all are."

"Then relax. I'm fine." She started to walk away from him.

"I'm not done."

She heaved a sigh of irritation and stopped again. "What else?"

"You need to go see Ranger."

"He could have called me."

"He did. You didn't answer."

"I was–"

"Not important," he interrupted. "Connie's last job is up soon. If you still want to be involved, go see him. He's in the apartment."

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie tapped at the door before walking quietly into the seventh floor apartment. "Ranger?"

The apartment was silent and still. She poked her head into the small room he sometimes used as an office. It was empty and the laptop was missing.

Wondering if Tank had made a mistake, she went into the living room and kitchen in turn. She had her hand on the bedroom door when she heard Ranger's voice inside.

"Steph?"

She pushed the door all the way open to find him sitting up in bed, hair down and looking thoroughly sleep mussed.

"What are you doing here?"

"Tank sent me up, said you needed to talk to me about Connie's last job."

Ranger muttered something under his breath.

"What?"

"I said, sometimes I wonder whose side Tank's on. I did want to talk to you, but it could have waited."

"So what are you doing in bed in the middle of the day?"

"Catching up on the sleep I didn't get last night. One of the accounts had a break-in."

He threw the duvet aside and got out of bed stiffly. Stephanie realized four things: one, that the silk boxers he wore before had just been for her benefit; two, that he wasn't remotely shy about being naked in front of her; three, that he had no reason to be, and he still took her breath away; and four, that he had a large, livid, horizontal mark across his midriff.

"Jesus! When did you get hurt?"

Before she realized what she was doing she was across the room and touching the angry mark softly with her fingertips.

"The break-in had a little excitement."

She was still carefully tracing the path of the injury. "What did they hit you with?"

"Steel bar. Steph, if you want me to keep my distance you need to back up now. I'm only human."

She looked down and saw the effect that she was having on him. She didn't answer, just kept stroking, tracing around the definition of his abdominal muscles now as well as along the path of the injury.

"Babe."

"I'm trying."

"Last chance."

She felt pinned under his intense gaze. She told her legs to move, but they weren't listening.

When she didn't move, he took her hand and used it to pull her slowly into him. She didn't fight it, just let herself be drawn in until she was crushed against him and encircled by his arms. She could feel his arousal pressing against her.

"I missed you," she whispered.

He responded by kissing her hard, demanding and gaining access to her mouth. She leaned into him allowing him to plunder her mouth with his tongue. She was caught in a rising tide of passion that didn't give a damn about long term commitments or declarations of love.

She felt him steer her backwards towards the bed that he had just left until she could feel the edge of the mattress against the back of her legs. He lowered her to the bed, pressing urgent kisses to her face and neck while reaching under her black RangeMan shirt to stroke her breasts and belly with strong, gentle hands.

His cell phone started vibrating on the bedside table, buzzing its way across the smooth surface until it fell to the carpet. They both ignored it, letting it go to voicemail. Within a few seconds the phone in the apartment started ringing instead. It rang about ten times before stopping, only to start ringing again.

Stephanie felt a warm breath against the soft skin of her belly as Ranger uttered a curse. He jumped up and walked out of the bedroom to answer the apartment phone that was still ringing insistently somewhere else in the apartment.

"Yo."

Stephanie caught occasional snatches of the conversation but couldn't follow it, and now that she was alone in his bedroom she was suddenly full of doubts. This was as much a bad idea as it had ever been. He still felt as magical as he always did, but there was still no promise of a future there, just passion that rendered her mindless as soon as he touched her. And it still wasn't enough.

She sat up, feeling foolish still lying on her back in an empty room, and got up off the bed. As she got to the door she met Ranger coming back.

"We have a situation. We need Connie tonight instead of Saturday the way we intended."

He grabbed a pair of pants out of his closet and pulled them on before leading the way back to the living room and sitting on the couch. He raised his eyebrows as she sat in the chair opposite instead of next to him, but didn't comment.

"That was Tank on the phone. We had a major takedown planned for Saturday night; a high ranking gang member by the name of Otis Sanborn. We've just received information that he's planning to run at any time, so it has to be tonight instead.

It's on Stark, and we need a lookout at the front of the building to warn us if reinforcements arrive that might mean we'd have to fight our way out with him. The best cover that won't arouse suspicion would be a hooker on the corner outside."

"You want her to pretend to be a hooker and hang around outside?"

"Yeah."

"That's dangerous territory."

"It's unavoidable. She'll be wired and we won't be far away at any time. We'll pick her up and take her with us as we leave the location. I need you to help her get prepared. We'll meet here at 22:00."

"I'm on it. I'll see you at 10." Stephanie jumped up and left the apartment. She wouldn't have much time to make the arrangements.

o0o0o0o0o

She burst into the bonds office just before Connie closed it up. "Is Lula still here?"

"Sure am." Lula came out of the tiny bathroom.

"We need to talk, all three of us. Connie, can you lock up so that we don't get disturbed?"

"Sure." Connie got up and locked both doors. "What's the big emergency?"

"Your last job for RangeMan is tonight; it just got brought forward from the weekend. And it's bad."

Connie visibly shivered as she sat down in her chair. "What is it?"

"You're going to have to act as a lookout for a takedown tonight. It's in a building on Stark and you're going to have to pose as a hooker outside while they go in. You'll be wired so you'll be able to warn them if reinforcements arrive."

Lula whistled. "That ain't no place for her. Hell, I wouldn't wanna be there at night and I've been in the business. Girls get hurt real regular down there."

"That's what I was scared of. I think we should all do it together. More safety in numbers."

"Would you?" Connie said in a small voice.

"Course," Lula said firmly. "Try keepin' me away. Only problem is, three girls on one corner ain't gonna look right. How 'bout I ask Jackie to come with me and we take the next corner."

"Will she do it?" Stephanie asked.

"She will." Lula's face was grim. "She owes me for a few things, and I'm gonna collect. I won't bring her into RangeMan, though. We'll meet you on Stark. Now, the first thing is to get you two into the right kind of clothes. I always knew my sense of style would win in the end."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie felt even more conspicuous walking into the RangeMan control room than she had the first time for the Domino's job. Lula had crammed her into a tiny spandex skirt and a halter top that was seriously struggling to contain her breasts. She didn't dare lean forward too far. The skirt was so short that she was sure she could feel the wind whistling around her privates, and she was wearing a thick layer of make up that felt like it had been applied with a trowel.

She shot an envious look at Stephanie. As usual, the taller woman was carrying her equally ridiculous costume off with confidence and style. She looked fantastic, even dressed up as a low price hooker.

Everything ran smoothly until Ranger came out of his office to do the briefing. He stopped dead when he saw Stephanie in her costume. When the men started to look around he carried on with the briefing, but he didn't take his eyes off Stephanie the whole time. Finally he dismissed the team to go down to the SUVs.

As Stephanie and Connie turned to follow them down, Ranger grabbed Stephanie's wrist and dragged her away towards his office. She tottered along behind him on her high heels, protesting.

Connie watched in confusion as the door to his office slammed shut behind them, leaving her alone in the control room apart from the men on monitor duty.

"Connie!" Tank was standing at the door to the stairs waiting for her.

"But Steph–"

"Isn't part of this job. Come on. We'll wait for Ranger downstairs."

She followed him out, casting anxious looks at Ranger's office door the whole way.

o0o0o0o0o

"What do you think you're doing?" Ranger asked as soon as the office door was closed.

"I'm going with her."

"No, you're not."

"I have to. It's not safe. You said that you wouldn't put her in danger for nothing. When's the last time you saw a woman standing on her own on Stark Street? They get hurt, Ranger."

"Which is exactly why you're not going. She'll be wired and there'll be a team there."

"In the building. Not with her. And, it'll look more realistic if there are two of us there."

"No. You don't do the jobs with her, remember?"

Stephanie was blazing with anger. "Yeah? Well fuck you, Ranger, and fuck your deals! Even hookers get safety in numbers when they stand on street corners! She's my friend and I'm going with her."

"I don't want you there."

"She needs me!"

"So do–" he started to shout, before stopping and turning away to the blank wall of his office. When he turned back to her his face was as blank as the wall and his voice was icy. "So, if she needs you so much, go. Get out of here, now."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie was shocked when Stephanie joined her on the street corner, her puffy eyes obvious even in the poor light from the streetlamp.

"What are you doing here? Tank said you're not working this job."

"The hell I'm not."

"But Ranger–"

"The hell with Ranger too. You're my friend."

"So's he."

Stephanie's voice was bitter. "Friends understand each other. Friends support each other when there's something that they have to do. And friends don't try to control each other."

Connie put her hand on Stephanie's arm. "Friends make up after fights too."

"Maybe friends do, but I don't know what he is."

"You sure about that?"

"I don't want to talk about this any more. We have work to do. Can we see Lula and Jackie from here?"

"Watching the other corner of the building. Look to your right."

o0o0o0o0o

Ranger was calm on the outside as they went into the building, but inside he was seething with rage. Fortunately his team were all experienced and trusted, and if they picked up on his fury they knew better than to let it affect the operation.

They quietly broke into the supposedly abandoned building through a rear fire door and stole though the darkened corridors until they located the room where Sanborn was holed up.

The skip had no idea that they were coming, and when half a dozen armed men burst into his hiding place, neither he nor his men managed to get to their weapons in time to pose a threat. It was a textbook operation.

They cuffed Sanborn and relieved the other men of all weapons and phones before securing them in another room. Ranger would let someone know where they were, once he and his men were well clear of the area and the skip handed over to the police.

They were marching him out of the building when Ranger heard a strangled cry across the street. He spun towards the sound.

Felton Ramsay was on Stephanie's street corner, laughing as he held Stephanie with one of his arms wrapped around her neck while she dangled helplessly. She was clawing frantically at the arm as he tightened his grip, cutting off her air supply just enough to weaken her.

Ranger started to move, but Ramsay produced a vicious looking blade and pressed it to her stomach hard enough to pierce her skin. A small rivulet of blood trickled down the section of bare skin between the halter top and the tiny skirt she wore. All the time he watched Ranger with a gleeful expression.

"Ah, ah! No closer." He shook Stephanie like a doll and she whimpered as she watched Ranger with wide, terrified eyes. "So pretty. Fancy thinking she could pass for a Stark whore. How badly do you want her back, Manoso?"

Ranger cut his eyes to the side. Tank was there with his gun in his hand and his eyes fixed on the pair.

"I have a shot," he murmured, not taking his eyes off Stephanie.

"She's too close, don't risk her."

His other men were even further back. Lula was running from the next corner, but was way too far away to be of any use. No-one could reach her. All they had was Tank's half chance at a shot that might hit Stephanie.

Ramsay smiled widely. "Oh, this is fun. Whatever happened to the Ranger that cut down everything in his path and made Stark Street tremble? To the bastard that killed my brother in cold blood. You've gone soft, Cuban. You're done. I think I'm just going to take my new toy home with me and unwrap her. You can have her back when I've finished playing." He gave Stephanie another shake. "Say bye-bye, little one."

"We have to stop him, Rangeman." Tank was still covering them, trying to get a clear shot at Ramsay.

"She's still in the way. Fuck. All right, if he gets to the car take the shot. He mustn't get her into the car."

Ramsay backed away towards his car, still smiling widely, still with the blade pressed to her stomach. They were running out of chances to stop him.

Suddenly a shot rang out, and blood and grey matter exploded from the side of his head, spattering Stephanie from head to foot where she dangled in front of him. His body spun away with the force of the shot and she dropped to the sidewalk in a crumpled heap.

Ranger was moving before she even hit the ground. He scooped her up and held her to his chest, where she flung her arms and legs around him and clung to him trembling like a frightened child.

He turned slowly towards the direction that the shot had come from. Connie was standing about twenty yards away, white-faced and with her gun still trained in their direction. As he watched, she lowered it with shaking hands but she made no other movement.

He walked over to her with Stephanie still in his arms and took the gun from Connie's nerveless fingers.

She opened her mouth, then closed it again without speaking and sank down slowly to sit shaking on the curb.

Hearing Tank walk up to join him. Ranger handed the gun to him with his eyes still fixed on Connie. "Clean this mess up."

He spun on his heel and carried Stephanie to the SUV. He put her in the passenger seat, got in the other side and took off with a screech of tires."

o0o0o0o0o

Connie climbed into her cold bed shaking uncontrollably with shock. Ranger's eyes had been wild, blazing. In all the years she'd known him she'd never seen him so close to losing control. It had felt like being in a cage with a trapped wolf.

Tank had been calm as he took her home, but he'd hardly said a word to her. She had no idea how bad this was.

She heard a stair creak and reached for her gun. When she realized that she didn't have a gun any more, panic rose in her throat. She hadn't been without a gun for as long as she could remember. Not having one made her feel vulnerable, helpless. She huddled under the duvet and tried to tell herself that Tank wouldn't have taken her home if something was planned. It wouldn't make sense. She knew that, but her heart was still racing in terror. Fear of the unknown beat logic hands down without the comforting weight of her gun in her hand.

"It's only me."

She sobbed with relief as she heard a familiar voice in her bedroom. The bed dipped and strong arms wrapped around her as Hal spooned her back into his warm body.

"I never shot anybody for real before," she whispered.

"I know. Sleep now."

She did.


	14. Epilogue

_Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing._

Epilogue

Hal was gone when Connie woke up. He must have slipped out again some time after she had fallen asleep. She got ready for work on auto-pilot, showering and dressing without any conscious thought.

She was behind her desk in the bonds office by 9 o'clock, and just sat there waiting for the police to show up and arrest her, or worse, for Ranger to come and find her. If the last few months had taught her anything, it was that anyone who pissed Ranger off had better start running. And never stop. She had seen his face last night before he took off with Steph, and she was sure as hell that she was on the list.

By 10 o'clock, anticipation had reduced her to a shaking wreck. She wondered where the kick ass chick that she always thought she was, had gone. If she left town, made a new start somewhere else, maybe she could find her again. Once upon a time she hadn't been afraid of anything. That was before she found out what there was to be afraid of.

When Tank walked in, it was almost a relief to face him and know that it would soon be over.

"Ranger wants to see you. Get your coat."

Connie stood numbly and reached over to the coat pegs.

Lula was having none of it. She rose from the couch and stood in front of the desk, arms folded and a mean expression on her face. "Uh uh, she goes nowhere. This stops right now, Tank, and what you mean to me ain't gonna get in the way. Get back to your nasty-ass boss and tell him he's gonna have to go through me first."

Connie reached out and touched her shoulder. "It's okay, Lula. I have family, remember? I'll be back soon."

"You better be, girlfriend, or I'm coming to find you."

Connie nodded silently, and followed Tank out of the door.

o0o0o0o0o

Tank escorted her to the elevator in the basement of the RangeMan building and left her to continue alone.

"You've been cleared to the seventh floor, the elevator will take you up automatically. Just knock and go on in. He'll be waiting for you."

"You aren't coming in?"

"No ma'am. I'll be on the fifth floor."

Panic rose in her. Just remember, you're connected. He can't hurt you without starting a war, she told herself. But he also told you that wouldn't stop him if he wanted to, piped up a little voice in the back of her mind. She forced herself to step into the elevator and turned to watch the doors close. Too late to run now.

o0o0o0o0o

She knocked twice and walked into Ranger's apartment. The apartment was calm, silent.

"Ranger? I'm here."

Her eyes caught and held a slight movement through the open door to the bedroom. Stephanie was sleeping peacefully in the large king-sized bed, and Ranger was sitting on the edge of the bed next to her. Connie watched him lean over and kiss Stephanie's hair before standing and walking out to meet her, closing the door quietly behind him. His face was expressionless, giving nothing away. He waved her to sit in a chair in the lounge, and took the chair opposite.

They watched each other for a long time before she finally broke the silence.

"I did what I thought I had to do. The family will step in, you know. I've been holding them off because we had a deal, but they won't stand by and let you hurt me."

He looked confused for a moment, then let out a snort before leaning his face into his hands and scrubbing his fingers through his hair. Suddenly he looked tired, human.

"How do they stand on job offers?"

"What?" It was her turn to look confused.

"You say you did what you had to do. You did, and you were the only one that could in time to save her. You've done what you had to do every time I threw something at you, whether it was dangerous or just calculated to humiliate you, and you did most of it thinking that you had no back-up, that you were alone. Never once did you back out on our deal, and never once did you give it less than your best. I don't let people like that go if I can help it."

She was speechless, her mouth hanging open.

"Plus, I'm running out of ways to tip Hal off that I'm looking for him so that he can get back to his duties before I find him. It's getting ridiculous. At least if you work for me I can assign him to be your partner and get some work out of him again. You keep things professional when you're on the clock, though. RangeMan has a reputation to maintain."

She gave a short, barking laugh. "You think you have to tell me how seriously you take your reputation?"

"Point taken."

"Then I accept." She paused, then continued. "You're a vengeful son of a bitch, you know that?"

"Add cold-hearted, savage, hard and manipulative to the list. They've all been said, and more, and they're all correct to some degree." He nodded towards the closed bedroom door. "But for what it's worth, I'm her cold-hearted, vengeful son of a bitch. If she ever realizes it."

"You know, you could just tell her."

He just shook his head, and started to walk back towards the bedroom. "You start on Monday. Go and find Hal; he's on monitor duty, although I doubt if he'd notice a full scale hostage situation going on while he knows you're up here."

Connie watched his back as he walked into the bedroom and sat by the bed to watch Stephanie sleep. It looked like maybe everybody had something they were afraid of.

o0o0o0o0o

Connie went down to the fifth floor and headed over to where a grinning Tank had pointed out Hal sitting in front of the bank of monitors. She perched on the end of the table and sat swinging her leg in front of him.

"He knows, you know," she said in a conversational tone.

Hal went white.

She laughed and carried on, "But that's okay, because you'll be seeing a lot more of me now I'm a permanent RangeMan employee, and you'll even have the boss's permission, provided you can keep your hands off me during work time."

She leaned in and whispered into his ear, "But I don't start properly until next week. I think you should play hooky once more, just for old time's sake, don't you?"

o0o0o0o0o

Stephanie opened her eyes in the darkened bedroom to find herself alone in the cool surroundings of the seventh floor apartment.

"Ranger?" she called, and he was next to her in an instant.

"Is everything okay? What happened after we left? Where's Connie?"

"Everything's fine. Tank and the team cleaned up the mess, Connie's gun is mysteriously disappearing as we speak, and Connie just left. I didn't want to wake you."

"But she's okay, right? And the deal's over?"

He looked away, staring at the wall beside her head as he answered. "Connie's deal is over, so yours is too. You can leave RangeMan tomorrow if you want. You could probably explain everything to Joe and it would work out okay. He's had time to calm down."

Stephanie didn't answer him.

He got up and went to leave the room, but stopped in the doorway facing away from her. "Of course, Connie could probably do with another girl around here to keep her company when she starts work here next week. You could stay. If you wanted to."

Stephanie watched him as he stood motionless, still not looking round at her. "Are you proposing another deal?"

"Maybe. If that's what it takes."

"I'd want a lot more out of this deal. I mean last time you got me as an employee. That was a hell of a payment just for toning down your revenge on someone."

He turned to face back into the room but remained standing in the doorway. "So what would it take to keep you at RangeMan?"

"Well to start with, if there's two of us we'll need a proper girl's locker room."

"Done," he replied promptly.

"Great. We'll need at least three lockers in case Lula wants to join too."

Ranger winced. "Anything else?"

"You."

He looked at her. "You already have me, you must know that by now."

"Oh, I know I've got most of you. This time I want to deal for the rest. I want what you're afraid to give me. Anyway, I understand that there are a few perks that come with being the boss's woman."

He walked back to the bed slowly and crawled up over her where she lay until he was looking straight into her eyes. "We'll need to talk terms."

"Of course, but I think I'll need a preview of the perks on offer before I can negotiate properly."

"I can do that." He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss, once, twice, moving to outline her mouth with his tongue before deepening the kiss and seeking entrance.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and yielded to the kiss, pulling him down towards her and dueling his tongue with her own, sliding one leg up to brush along his side.

He gradually relaxed his body weight down on top of her, until he hissed with pain at the same time as she yelped. He pulled his weight back quickly and dropped down at her side instead.

"War wounds never interfere in the romance novels," she murmured ruefully.

"Shows what they know." He lifted up the large tee-shirt that he had changed her into last night and pulled it over her head, throwing it into a corner. "Anyway, some things need to wait. No good negotiator puts his best offer straight onto the table."

She tried to keep her voice level as he swept her hair out of the way and trailed a line of kisses down the column of her neck. "The table is an option? I think I'm impressed."

"Oh no. You don't get the table until you've signed on the dotted line. I've got to hold something in reserve." He nibbled along her collarbone and out to the point of her shoulder.

She caught her breath sharply. "Ella would probably kill us anyway."

He started circling her nipples with a finger tip, spiraling in and out and flicking the tips until they rose to stiff peaks. "I try not to piss off a woman that could kill me easily. Which gives me a problem if you accept the deal, because then that would be you." He drew the flesh of her neck into his mouth, sucking hard.

"It could–_oh God!_–be a problem."

"Since I can piss you off just by breathing." He moved down to pull one of her nipples into his mouth.

"_Jesus!_ We may need a sub-clause in the contract."

"No killing." He transferred his attentions to the other nipple and idly stroked a finger down into her nest of curls.

"No killing," she agreed between gasps, "unless I have PMS or you deserve it."

"Define 'deserve'," he murmured as he pressed a series of kisses to her belly and French kissed her navel.

"A willful act or–_ohhhh–_omission that…" her voice trailed off as she concentrated on the sensations that he was creating.

"Keep talking," he ordered as he continued downwards to place his mouth to her center, licking along her folds.

"–that any–_God!_–reasonable woman would consider–_don't stop!_–unacceptable."

"I don't think I can agree to that term." His voice shot vibrations through her center, bringing her right to the edge.

"Okay, I," she whimpered as he inserted a finger inside her, "concede the point. No killing under any circumstances."

"Agreed." He sucked her clitoris hard at the same time as he crooked his finger inside her. She shattered instantly, throwing her head back and closing her eyes as wave after wave of sensation rolled through her.

He laid his head on her belly and watched her face as she recovered slowly, taking care to avoid the dressing covering the spot where the knife had scratched her."Fit to continue negotiations?"

"You're a hard negotiator," she complained.

"Right now, very," he agreed.

"That's not what I meant."

He rose and stripped his own clothes off before rejoining her on the bed.

"Boy, you weren't kidding, were you," she noted.

"You wanted to see the perks."

"That definitely counts."

"It gets better." He kneeled on the bed and pulled her toward him by the hips until her bottom was resting on his knees and her legs were draped to either side of him.

He leaned forward and gently pressed into her, bringing a soft groan from her. When he was fully seated he sat back again and started to move his hips against her, keeping a hand pressed down on her pelvis and a finger continually stroking against her clitoris. He watched her mouth form a round O and her eyes roll back as she closed her eyes and gave herself over to sensation, leaving him in complete control.

He picked up the pace a little and was rewarded with a series of tiny whimpers and moans that built until she was gasping and begging him not to stop. He obliged, pushing her closer and closer to the edge until she fell over it again, this time with a scream. A few more strokes and he followed her, finally collapsing next to her on the bed.

o0o0o0o0o

They lay comfortably spooned together in the big king sized bed as the daylight faded and evening closed in. Stephanie snuggled her back into him a little more closely.

"Anything else I should know about being the woman of the nastiest, most vengeful bastard in town before I make a decision?"

Ranger kissed her shoulder. "Safest job in the world."

"Better to be at the right hand of the devil than in his path1, is that it?"

"Underneath him is even better, or on top of him…"

She smiled. "I think we have a deal," she murmured softly.

THE END

_1 The Mummy (1999)_


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